One-way into Shibuya: Solo Remix
by circifox
Summary: (Rewrite of One-way into Shibuya) Penerope Shiro noticed that something was off with her copy of "The World Ends With You" since she began playing it, especially after she played it normally on another copy. When trying to complete "Another Day", she's dragged into the game and has to find a way back home. Due to the dangers of the game, she may escape or die trying.
1. Prologue: How The Mess Started

It may be questionable as to why I'd want to rewrite the original One-way into Shibuya as well as the whole series in question. It seemed to be going well with One-way into Marioland and the series in general was doing well.

That is, until I started seeing many errors I could fix with the series. I do not intend to delete any of the One-way series, mainly due to the fact this story series is one of my earliest accomplishments on this website. Various things didn't make sense, however.

My main problem comes with certain parts of One-way into Shibuya and One-way out of Shibuya where OCs were involved. I kinds just recycled my OCs and it overall made a mess. One-way out of Shibuya also ended up being rushed in parts. There was also some of my old habits present in the stories that may have made it hard to read.

So, here I am. I'm going to start the story from scratch. Of course, our main character, Penelope, isn't going to change (much), but there will be a slightly different scenario with how things are executed and how the characters interact.

I don't own The World Ends With You. Square Enix does. However, I do own my OCs.

Here's the prologue.

-o-o-o-o-

Prologue: How The Mess Started

I've always been proud of my gaming abilities. My friends tell I'm obsessed (though everyone has their obsessions, so I don't know what they're talking about).

I can confess that I do enjoy completing every single mission and objection perfectly in a game if they have them. Maybe it's an act of absurd perfectionism; maybe an urge; or maybe a bit of OCD tendencies. It could be an act of one, two or all three. Still, I have plenty of time and patience. I pay attention in school, I get my work done. And with that, I'm able to juggle my time well.

Still, despite the fact I can manage my time well during the school season, my friends insist that most of my so-called 'obsession' shines through during the summer seasons. Especially if I've gotten a new game and I want to complete it. They get worried about me when I lock myself in my room out of focus and somehow manage to pull off all-nighters when I'm driven into a game.

I make sure to take care of myself, however. It's not like I'm not that ignorant of my own needs.

I guess the problem with my intense desire to perfectly complete games shone through when a game called "The World Ends With You" came out. I found out that with this goddamn game, you can't fully complete it and get all the pins noting that you did need to use the multiplayer function as some pins will only show up in one game.

Because of this, I made my friends get a copy of the game with me. The most unapproving of the idea was my friend Akira Yamada. Akira is a musical prodigy with the piano and he's incredibly devoted to his music. However, Akira hates video games. I mean, I convinced him to get a DS, and he has a couple of games, but he rarely plays them and usually ends up being indifferent and apathetic to them. Upon persuading Akira to get "The World Ends With You" by using the bandwagon technique (and some feminine charm), he did attempt to play it.

But, like he usually does with games, he got bored. He ended up giving me his copy of the game.

Initially, I wanted to get two copies of the game so I'd have a better chance at completing it. However, my grandmother didn't allow it.

Here's the problem with my copy of "The World Ends With You" though. I found a problem with mine as I was progressing through it. For one thing, it took me three weeks on that copy. Normally, that never happens.

"Three weeks? Well, the game must be pretty long then."

Well, yeah. That's what I initially thought until I played through the copy Akira gave me. I was able to get through the game in a much shorter timespan than with my copy.

However, with my copy of the game, the problem with the day progression as that as soon as I was finished with one mission; for some reason, the game decided to run on real time and wouldn't let me play until the next day.

I don't know why the game decided to stop me from playing. It didn't even take me that long to complete the missions either, but something was off about my game. However, I decided to be ignorant about it because maybe I conveniently got a special edition copy.

I mean, I was able to 100% the game up until the "Another Day" story.

And now, I list yet another problem about my strange copy of TWEWY. I remember during Week 2 especially, I was feeling on edge. I kinda got this feeling someone was watching me. Like they were consciously aware I was in control of the game and what was happening in it. Joshua, or Yoshiya Kiryu, Neku's second partner and the Composer of the Shibuya District in the game gave me the chills.

He didn't in Akira's copy, but in mine, I could've sworn he was watching me and was consciously aware of my existence as the player truly controlling the path of the game.

Going back to the end of Week 3, Day 7, as soon as I beat the final boss and the credits rolled and I unlocked what I needed to, I didn't go to the "Another Day" story right away because I didn't want to deal with the Tin Pin Minigame. That was the whole reason I didn't want to even attempt it because I absolutely loathe Tin Pin and I see the point of it, but I don't like it.

But, I also couldn't go to it because once again, the game wouldn't let me do a damn thing!

I don't like being restricted from doing something in a game. It stops the progression and leaves the player in chains.

For some reason, I seem to be the only one who has this problem. My friend Makoto managed to finish the game before me because Akira gave me his copy a week into playing the game. Makoto has never finished a game before me until the incident with my copy.

Just as a side note, this isn't the same Makoto from TWEWY. I recall one of the lesser characters in that game being named Makoto, but trust me, this isn't the same guy.

…Yes, yes, I know I keep getting off-topic in aspects.

So, back to what I was saying, the game didn't let me go to the "Another Day" mission. Instead, I heard a very familiar and ominous voice in my head. " _The clock's ticking, Penerope. I wonder when you'll decide to make it stop._ "

That didn't happen at the end of Akira's copy of the game, so I was guessing I was just hearing things.

For a majority of playing "The World Ends With You", the game ended up becoming far more stressful than necessary. Especially because it just didn't let me play and I was hearing voices and feeling unnerved. It was basically stupid little things like that that was causing problems for me. I also mostly played it on my 3DS.

So, when I decided to put the game in today out of a strange urge, I decided to use my DS Lite. I had my M'sieur Lapin plush my grandmother made me (Gramma Yuri made it for my birthday as it was my favorite item in TWEWY) and my 3DS by my side in its case when I put the game in. My cell phone was also in my pocket at the time.

I'll be blunt when I'm saying this, however.

As soon as I decided to load up that game, all hell broke loose.


	2. Chapter 1: Fallen In

Chapter 1: Fallen In

An insatiable urge had been going through Penerope Shiro's mind through the past two weeks she had set down "The World Ends With You". She had been off school for the summer season for about a week now, and though gaming hadn't been her primary focus since after finals, this was a strange feeling. She felt like the game was calling her. It left her unnerved and somewhat stressed as well as anxious. She didn't understand why she felt this way, but she just did.

So, once this urge became unbearable, she decided to finally play the goddamned game. She was going to complete the "Another Day" mission and complete it, in hopes that this temptation would be cured. Last she checked, she hadn't charged her DS Lite in a while, so she had her 3DS on backup. Her grandmother was out shopping, so she had her phone in her pocket in case she needed to call her. Her grandma's handmade M'sieur Lapin plush was also in Penerope's arms as she was loading up the game. Her lucky ten-pointed star pendant was also around her neck in hopes something didn't go horribly wrong while she was playing.

She could go through her DS Lite's startup screen just fine. Then, she loaded up "The World Ends With You" like normal.

And from there, it went downhill.

For one thing, absolutely nothing about the startup screen was right. The top screen was black, and it was the same for the bottom screen. Penerope raised an eyebrow at this and sighed. "Did the game decide to crash before I could load it? Come ON. I just want to get 'Another Day' over with!" She groaned to herself, impatiently tapping the screen with her stylus.

She was nervous about her DS Lite deciding to die on her before she started the game. She didn't want to go and look for her DS's charger at a time like this if it died. Her 3DS's charger was hooked into her wall socket already and she had it by her side, so using it as backup was the best option.

There was still nothing, and Penerope's eyes darted back and forth from the screen to the light indicating the battery power a few times. Nothing. Just an empty black void remained in front of her. Penerope shook her DS and let out a sigh of exasperation.

She set the handheld console on her bed and closed the door before going back to the game. She decided that she was going to go and turn her DS Lite off in hopes of reloading her game.

Before she could touch the power switch, she heard a familiar voice come out of her DS. " _My, my. You're an impatient one, aren't you? Did you expect to load up the game as normal and get to finishing a bonus mission?_ "

Penerope looked at her door and wondered if her Gramma Yuri had returned home before hesitantly responding to the voice. She put most of her attention on the door because she was ready to turn off the game at any moment. "Yes. That is how the game is supposed to function, after all. That is the last bit I need to do, and then, I would've completed my copy of 'The World Ends With You' after weeks of suspense."

" _Really? I'd hate to break it to you, but at this point, there's nothing left for you to do. You're finished with the 'game'. All that's waiting for you is disappointment._ "

"Bullshit."

" _…_ _Excuse me?_ "

Penerope, who was only focusing 25% of her attention towards the game at the moment, continued to explain her reasoning. "Don't play me for a fool. There is a bonus mission at the end of this game. It's called 'Another Day' and it unfortunately puts most of its attention onto the god-forsaken Tin Pin minigame. I prefer fighting the ultimate boss over dealing with that. I haven't completed my copy of this game yet because I was never able to get to it."

" _That's because this 'bonus' you're looking for doesn't exist._ " The mysterious voice continued to insist.

"It _does_ exist, buddy. Stop treating me like an idiot and let me play the rest of the game already."

" _I remember that universe well. Still, in this world, it doesn't exist. That would require going back in time during the third week. However, the third week of the game was weeks ago. There's also the fact this 'game' of yours is set in the main universe. I don't know what you're implying, but you've completed all you can._ "

"I don't know what you keep trying to preach to me, buddy, but listen: I. Am. Not. Done. With. The. Game. Seven words explain why I will continue to insist on this topic. You can't trick me, and I refuse to stand down until I get to play the 'Another Day' mission."

Penerope continued to stare intently at the door. "Or… well, until my DS Lite dies. Or until my Gramma comes home. She said she was going to make some Minestrone when she gets home. Either that, or some Miso Ramen."

The voice seemed to grumble upon hearing 'minestrone'. " _Well. That's… pleasant. Still, that isn't the problem. The clock is soon to stop ticking, Penerope._ "

Penerope perked up at her name being said. She finally looked at the screen again, clutching her 3DS and her phone. She noticed the battery on her DS Lite was green still, but she knew it was going to go red at any moment. "Yep. My DS is about to…" She paused upon pondering the situation and this strange conversation. This had to be strange monologue in her head that she was conceiving in her tempest of thoughts.

However, this voice seemed to be coming directly out of her DS Lite's speakers, and she just realized it. Instead of finding anything to be remotely wrong, Penerope assumed that she was tired and making things up out of her near-subconscious mind due to a lack of focus.

What got her though, was that this strange 'subconscious' voice knew her name? "Wait, wait, wait. Waiiit. What. How do you know my name? Is this my mind telling me to turn the game off and find my DS charger before continuing? Is the battery the clock?" As if on cue, the battery light on her DS changed to red and she gasped.

She started tugging on her hair for a moment. "Ok, so obviously, the game has crashed and it's in a state of limbo. I'm going to need to reboot it before I can get to the mission."

" _How many times do I have to tell you? There is nothing left. You completed the game as far as you can complete it._ "

"Look, whoever-you-are. Obviously, this is my mind trying to convince me to not play the game, and you're probably a voice in my head telling me to go read a book or something. I'm not finished with the game yet!"

The voice sighed. " _Wow, you're stubborn._ "

"This isn't stubbornness. This is determination, and I told you that I'm not going to stop trying to get to the bonus mission you're hiding from me. However, my DS is about to die soon, and I need to reset the game."

" _What is about to die?_ "

"My DS, stupid! The battery is red and I must turn it off and switch the game into my 3DS. Plus, the game also doesn't seem to be working. How about we just end this and stop arguing over the concept of me wanting to complete the game."

" _You still continue to insist that this is a game?_ "

"Yes. I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to happen in the game's programming. I'm just going to stop this conversation and turn my DS off if you don't mind."

There was silence for a moment as Penerope finally ended this argument that only seemed to be going in circles. However, there was one problem when Penerope tried to turn her DS off. Despite sliding the switch back, her DS didn't turn off. It was almost like something was preventing her from turning it off, which was all the more frustrating.

Still, she didn't know why it wouldn't turn off. She kept trying and trying, but nothing worked in her favor. She heard eerie giggling coming out from the speakers of her DS, though Penerope was convinced that she was asleep and was in a nightmare. Or, she was in a dark, twisted daydream. That worked too.

" _Time's up, Penerope dear. I'm afraid you can't get out of what's coming next._ "

Penerope rolled her eyes. "Yeah, the 'Another Day' mission. What, did you fix the game from within or something? That's what I've been waiting for. Can I play the game now and get out of this weird daydream?" she asked impatiently.

She didn't get a response this time. Instead, the screen remained black. Very suddenly, without and kind of formal introduction whatsoever, the screen changed to glowing an eerie white color. At first, Penerope, out of stubbornness, assumed that this meant the game was finally deciding to work.

Except it didn't, because it flashed black again. Penerope assumed that it was the near-dead battery doing this. She clutched her 3DS as well as M'sieur Lapin. The screen suddenly flashed white once again, and for no reason at all, Penerope felt her head get heavy.

She ended up blacking out with no clue as to what was happening to her.

XxXxX

(?)

Noise. In the darkness, she could hear noise all around her. The ground felt smooth with a hint of roughness and rockiness, like that of asphalt. The ground was warm, and she felt like the sun's beams were shining down upon her. The warm embrace around her from the ground felt comfortable, yet annoying at the same time. However, in her left hand, she could feel rough but protective fabric, and in another arm, she could feel softness. Groggily, Penerope uncomfortably got her face off the ground. M'sieur Lapin was in her arms, and her 3DS in its case was by her side. Her cell phone was still in her pocket and her lucky pendant was still around her neck.

The only glaring problem that Penerope could see that she was in the middle of the street in the busiest part of the Shibuya district. She didn't recognize anything to be wrong as she, her friends, and her grandmother all lived in this place. Something felt off, however. It was mostly how the buildings looked and that something just didn't feel right. Standing up and grabbing her 3DS in its case, Penerope rubbed her eyes and noticed there was a crowd surrounding her. The people seemed panicked and rather worried about Penerope's condition, but she simply shook it off.

She could hear questions and voices afloat in the crowd.

"Who is that girl?"

"How did she get in the middle of the street? It seems like she came out of nowhere."

"What's going on?"

Chatter, chatter and more chatter. Penerope felt almost intimidated by this crowd, but the longer she stood and proved to be ok, the crowd began blending in. The daily bustle of the Shibuya District continued. The first out of place thing that caught Penerope's attention was the sign displaying the trending brands.

At the moment, D+B seemed to be the trending brand. It was natural, as it had many stores and sold its products in places throughout the district. It didn't bother Penerope until she thought about one important detail.

D+B was a brand in TWEWY. Sheep Heavenly and Natural Puppy also showed up on the screen. Those were also brands in TWEWY.

Penerope cocked her head to the side and pondered on what was happening. Maybe that's what was wrong. Penerope felt yet another problem. She felt like two people were watching her. Someone seemed to be in her diameter in the front, while the other around the back.

In order to try and figure out what was going on, Penerope headed up to where the Shibuya 104 building would be located. She was starting to assume that this was some kind of dream, mainly as if Penerope did somehow end up in the world of TWEWY, that would be the only way.

These kinds of dreams were familiar to her. She remembered during finals season, she had a weird dream about Mario Party DS as she ended up playing to calm her nerves, but everything went horribly wrong and made her dreams and thoughts a swirling torrent of confusion. She kept losing minigames to Peach for some reason. She didn't understand why she was just losing to Peach, but she was.

This was a hyper-realistic dream though. Then again, dreams could give off the illusion of reality at times, so it didn't seem too strange.

The only problem is that Penerope still felt like she was being watched. She was pretty sure that you weren't supposed to feel that way in a dream.

Then again, going back to the idea that this whole fiasco was most likely a strange dream Penerope was having, feeling watched was understandable. The problem was that it felt like one presence, not two. It also felt like whoever was stalking watching her was probably behind her.

Sighing, Penerope looked back towards the crowd. The presence vanished, which was peculiar.

" _Ok, so I'm probably just imagining things._ "

Penerope started to notice how the crowd was getting annoying at this point. She felt cramped and like she could run into someone and drop something at any moment.

She decided to go up into the area past Shibuya 104 that would take her to the district where that one Ramen shop was and where Lapin Angelique was. However, as soon as she turned around and started moving, she felt like someone was following her once again. It seemed like whoever was following her again decided to magically hide their presence before going back to stalking following her around.

As Penerope was finally about to figure out where she wanted to go in this dream, she paused when she felt someone tap her shoulder. She was ready to attack whoever came up behind her until a voice spoke. "Wow. You don't react to surprises well."

Penerope went silent and turned around. The person who decided to randomly follow her was a girl. Her wavy black hair was tied into a ponytail and her dark blue eyes had this mysterious yet mischievous glimmer in them. The problem was that something seemed to be off about this girl, but Penerope couldn't point a finger at it.

The first thing that came to mind was an obvious question. Instead of smiling at the girl, Penerope's brown eyes gave off a deadly glare. "And who the hell are you? Why have you been following me?"

"Oh, that's easy! To make sure you're the right person. The Composer wanted me to come get you as soon as you woke."

Hearing the term "Composer" and "come get you" were two things that had certain unwanted implications behind it. Stiffening up, Penerope stepped back, clutching M'sieur Lapin and her 3DS case. "So, you've come to kill me in public, eh? Come at me!"

The girl giggled at Penerope, much to her surprise. "Oh no, silly! I didn't come to kill you. If you're the right person, you should be able to pass into the UG just fine."

"…Huh? What are you talking about?"

The girl swayed from side to side a moment before taking Penerope's wrist. "Do you want me to show ya, girly?"

"I'd prefer if I could wake up from this dream, actually."

"Dream?" asked the girl. She didn't get what Penerope was blabbing about, and Penerope didn't understand why this girl didn't understand how this was a dream. Upon pondering on it, Penerope froze as soon as the girl broke out into what reminded the brunette of maniacal laughter.

Penerope didn't get what was happening. However, this girl was starting to freak her out. So, the easiest option was to simply walk away from her.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. Once Penerope turned around, the girl pulled on the back of Penerope's shirt and caused her to gasp. When she was off-guard, the girl took Penerope's arm and powerfully tugged her back.

She made this idea of 'going into the UG without dying' seem easy, especially when Penerope turned back around to scold her. The brunette's brown eyes then saw what she found to be incredibly wrong with this girl…

…being the fact that she was a Reaper. A cheery grin was on her face as Penerope saw the smooth, skeletal-like wings on this strange girl's back now.

"Welcome to the UG, Miss Shiro!"

Penerope narrowed her eyes and proceeded to correct her with no emotion whatsoever. "Penerope. My name is Penerope. Don't refer to me by my last name."

The reaper huffed and crossed her arms. A pout was on her cherub-like face. "Oh, you're no fun," huffed the girl. She flipped her ponytail and smiled again. "ANYWAY, I'm Kanon Koizumi! As you can see, I'm a-"

"Harrier Reaper. You're a harrier Reaper."

Kanon proceeded to cough, uttering "Killjoy" in it and then continued. She perked up and swayed from side-to-side excitedly for a moment. "Yes, yes. You can call me Kana for short."

"I'm going to call you Kanon."

"Kana. Call me Kana."

"Kanon."

Kanon, or simply Kana, seemed annoyed that Penerope was refusing to call her by her preferred name. Rolling her eyes, she angrily tugged on Penerope's arm again. Penerope, in response, slapped Kana as she was getting sick and tired of this unnecessary physical contact. As if on cue, someone's phone started ringing.

It wasn't Penerope's phone. The ringtone was upbeat and faster than Penerope's 8-bit ringtone. Kana took her phone out of her skirt's pocket and motioned for Penerope to be quiet as she answered it. "Hello? This is Kana." She spoke.

Penerope was unsure who Kana was speaking with, but as she was currently trapped in an unfavorable situation, the first person she decided to communicate with in her dream was Akira.

She normally spoke with Akira as her gramma never had her phone on her if she was grocery shopping.

Though… Penerope never felt the urge to text anyone in a dream. Or call them. She never had her phone on her in a dream. Or the items she was holding when she suddenly fell asleep.

…Was this a dream?

Penerope stubbornly shook her head. This had to be a dream. Her brain seemed to be telling her otherwise, which was odd, but Penerope didn't care. She quickly texted "Hi" to Akira because she didn't know what to say, though she nearly typed "Help". Her gut was actually agreeing with her brain for once.

Kana seemed to be talking on the phone for a while. She felt her phone vibrate as she was about to put it in her pocket.

She sighed and checked it. Akira was answering back, which was odd for him.

She read over the text. She furrowed her eyebrows together when the text read, "Yeah, hi. Where the hell are you? You promised you'd come to the concert tonight." Well, that was aggressive. Then again, she did make a promise to him that she'd go to his concert. It was likely her brain sending her a reminder.

She texted him back, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I know. The concert isn't until 5:00, but I'll be there once I wake up." Penerope looked up from her texting to see Kana was still on the phone. This seemed to be a long call.

Her phone vibrated again. Penerope sighed and looked down at her phone again. The tone of the text bothered her. "When did you learn how to sleep-text Pen? You never text anyone in your sleep. Besides, if you are somehow sleep-texting me, how do you know what's going on?"

Penerope paused and was about to respond until her phone was suddenly taken from her. She was ready to grab it back until she saw Kana.

However, she froze. Kana spoke in a low voice. "How about we not focus on texting and focus on getting to the Shibuya River? He was certain that this would happen at some point."

Penerope didn't want to go to the Shibuya River, noting who was there, but it seemed she had no choice. This was the UG—the ground of the Reapers and the Composer, as well as the dead, or the Players.

One thing was for certain, however.

Something definitely wasn't right about what was going on. Penerope could feel it.


	3. Chapter 2: The New Blood

Chapter 2: The New Blood

Kana was persistent on guiding Penerope to the Shibuya River despite the fact she very well knew what it was. Unfortunately, this looming feeling of fear and a desperate desire to 'escape' from whatever was happening came over Penerope. She was able to keep a straight face on despite the fact her brain and whole body were in panic mode.

Her Reaper guide could sense Penerope's internal feelings. It was a tempest of emotion and thought that she could read. Kana let out a childish giggle. "Wow. You need to chill out. The Composer isn't that bad to be around. He's been wanting to see you."

Penerope scoffed at the idea. "Oh please. The Composer is my least favorite character in The World Ends With You. Saying his god-forsaken name would send chills down my spine."

Kana seemed unapproving of Penerope's dismay and guided her to the Shibuya River. The dank environment wasn't the only thing that brought a chill down Penerope's back as they drew ever closer to the hell known as the Dead God's Pad as well as the Room of Reckoning and all in-between.

However, there were few reapers about. In fact, Kana was the only one who she had seen so far.

It was a little chilling.

Out of nervousness, Penerope decided to start another conversation with her 'guide'. "So… um… where is everyone? I know Joshua brought Neku and the others back into the RG, but did he bring any of the Reapers back? Or…"

"He did bring a few of them back. Only a few, though. Only those who were 'worth it' in his mind."

"What, like Def Mӓrch? Or Uzuki and Kariya (then again, I don't think they died)? What about some of the Reaper Officers who went down? I thought that once you're erased, you can't come back."

Kana didn't answer her. It troubled Penerope a little, as it likely meant nobody was there.

"…There are exceptions to that rule from what I know. Only one of the officers was brought back. Those other two Reapers you mentioned have been here a while, and I don't know who the last group you're talking about is, but they might've been. The only Reaper I know directly is Coco Atarashi."

Penerope went silent, not aware of who that was. Kana paused and stared at Penerope bewildered. That character wasn't recognizable to the girl. "Don't ya know who Coco is!? She's the guide! How do you not know who she is?!"

"I've never heard of her. Is she from a different version or something?"

Kana face palmed and shook her head in disbelief. Her deep blue eyes pierced through Penerope's brown ones. "Have you lived under a rock your entire life or something, kid? How do you not know who Coco is?"

"I've only played TWEWY on the DS, if that helps. I didn't bother with the Solo Remix or the Live Remix." In that brief moment, Penerope forgot that in this world, The World Ends With You was reality and not a game. Kana didn't know what Penerope was talking about now.

Kana was tempted to smack Penerope for her ignorance but decided against it.

As the two of them continued walking, Penerope continued her Q&A. "Who's the Conductor now? Is it still Kitaniji?"

"Kitaniji? I dunno who that is, but they aren't the Conductor. There's only a handful of Reapers right now." Kana continued to explain. It seemed that Kana was just as oblivious as she was when it came to the Reapers.

"Ok. Is there another game going on?"

Kana shook her head. "Nope. Having a game is difficult when there's so few Reapers and one officer."

"Who's the Officer now?"

Kana shrugged at the question. "Dunno. I heard they were promoted to being the Conductor, but it might be a rumor. I know two of the reapers that have been here a while have been considered to be bumped up to Officers."

Penerope continued to flood Kana with questions. It didn't bother her as much, though she wasn't able to answer very many. Next thing Penerope knew, they were already at the Dead God's Pad. Kana stopped the questions as she popped open the door and let Penerope in.

Many of Penerope's questions were answered. She only saw four Reapers in the room, which seemed like a lot in her opinion.

Uzuki and Kariya were there, which was fortunate (Penerope secretly liked their dynamic). Then there was an unknown beige-haired girl in what could be the pinkest and candiest outfit known to man. The last one Penerope saw was Sho Minamimoto. He looked visibly annoyed (by something) and was staring at the wall. He looked like he was recovering from something, as his left arm was in a cast and he was a little bruised in places.

Penerope had a feeling that she knew why Sho wasn't looking good in the slightest. Kana came back into the room as Penerope was awkwardly sizing everyone up. None of the Reapers paid much attention to her.

Kana heeded no attention to them either. She proceeded to continue guiding Penerope to the Room of Reckoning. The only one who acknowledged Penerope was Sho as she was getting to the door. Penerope and he locked eye contact until Kana shoved the girl through the door and ruined the moment.

Penerope was confused by what she had just seen and she stared at Kana. "…Was Sho the Officer brought back from the dead?"

"Mr. Minamimoto? No. He's been alive a while, but I dunno if he was brought back from the dead or not."

"…Who was the Officer then?"

"Ms. Konishi. I dunno if she's the Conductor or not though."

Penerope narrowed her eyes at Joshua's decision. " _Why the actual $%# would he decide to revive HER from the dead!?_ _And how was she brought back?_ "

Kana shrugged, responding to Penerope's thought. She didn't know Joshua's exact reasoning, so she gave a theory. "Well, he needed to bring back at least ONE responsible officer."

"She wanted to overthrow Kitaniji to become the Conductor!"

"I still have no idea who that is…." Penerope sighed at Kana's ignorance.

The pair continued to move on to the Room of Reckoning. At this point, Penerope had many questions that she needed answered.

She especially needed to wake up soon if she didn't want to miss Akira's concert. He'd flip if she skipped it on purpose.

XxXxX

(Room of Reckoning)

Penerope regret being dragged into the Room of Reckoning as soon as she stepped in. At one moment in the hall, Penerope hesitated on going into the room upon reaching the door, except Kana pushed her in there anyway without a second glance. Penerope nervously walked up the steps, seeing a tall white throne with pillars around it. Black dragons decorated the pillars and went up into the dark sky of the room. On the dark grey floor, black pathlike patterns led to the throne and the pillars.

It was a different feeling to be in the room in this dream instead of seeing it on a screen. It looked like nobody was here, so Penerope thought it would be fine to leave. _Nobody was there, after all._

Sheepishly, Penerope turned to the door and began to head toward it. However, Kana was kind enough to not let her leave.

"Nuh uh, girl. You can't just leave! Your stalling and persistence has caused us to make the Composer wait for an hour when we should've been here a while ago. I mean, I'm pretty sure the Composer's patient but come on."

Penerope laughed nervously. "But he's not here. Shouldn't we wait for him to come back?"

"…No. He's definitely here." Kana stated, looking up and around. It seemed like the girl could sense his looming presence, which Penerope disliked.

Another voice chimed into the mix. " _Why, Penelope dear. It was quite rude of you to keep me waiting._ " All of the chills were sent down Penerope's spine as soon as she heard Joshua's voice. Especially how it echoed throughout the room and basically surrounded her.

Kana proceeded to whisper in Penerope's ear. "I told ya so. Go to the center of the room and apologize." Hesitantly, Penerope obeyed the order even though it was far from being satisfactory. There was also the fact that it still didn't look like Joshua was there despite that she had just heard him speak.

When she edged closer, there was a white flash and it nearly scared the life out of Penerope when she saw Joshua. In a very brief moment, Penerope could've sworn she had seen Joshua in his Composer form.

However, with a grin, he was in his RG form. He silently dismissed Kana, who bowed and took the door behind her. Penerope looked back nervously, panic starting to ease into her mind. Kana never gave her goddamn phone back after she stole it from her!

"How has your stay been so far, Penelope? This place hasn't been as expected, hmm?"

Penerope, who was disliking the fact Joshua was still referring to her as the name her friends called her, decided to not utter a word. When she heard his voice in her head (as it was likely her brain speaking), he always called her "Penerope" not "Penelope". Sure, she input her name as 'Penelope' in some games, with TWEWY being one of those games, but he couldn't have been reading off her player name.

The idea of 'her stay' in TWEWY seemed weird though. This was a dream… Well, that's what Penerope continued trying to convince herself. She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. "What are you blabbing about? This is a video-game induced dream. Though…"

Penerope looked around, avoiding eye contact. "This is probably the weirdest dream I've ever had. It's strangely hyper realistic but then again, the Mario Party DS dream was like that too."

"…Dream? Well, you're quite good at convincing yourself of the complete opposite in specific situations. I'd hate to disappoint you, but this is the reality I live in and the one you're in now."

At this point, the girl was fed up with this nonsense. All the questions she had right now didn't concern her. "Ok. Prove this is real. Try and make me feel so much pain that it would make me wake up."

Joshua didn't get why Penerope was demanding to feel pain, but he decided to grant her wish for the hell of it. He frowned, trying to recall something. "Penelope, mind answering a quick question for me?"

"…Huh? What, is this a question that if I get wrong, I'll be struck by a Jesus Beam?"

Joshua shook his head. "No. I was wondering if you remembered your rank in this 'game'."

Penerope couldn't look at her copy of TWEWY that she had in her DS Lite. She had to rely on Akira's-copy-that-was-technically-hers-now. "I tried to 100% this game somehow, so I tried to play it as perfectly as possible and fulfill all the requirements." Penerope frowned and looked away. "I haven't gotten the highest rank yet though. I know it doesn't end at Angel."

The Composer paused, giving Penerope this confused yet curious stare. He looked pleasantly surprised (it wasn't out of sarcasm for once). "…What do you even do on your free time? It seems like you throw it at video games like you have nothing better to do with your life."

Penerope flipped her hair as she continued to load up the game, ignoring Joshua's comments. "Well, as you've said, everybody makes sacrifices. You'd be amazed how much progress and grinding I can get done when I'm on a break."

"How you're able to keep living despite that is beyond me."

"Says the ruler of the dead." Penerope grumbled under her breath as she checked her ranking.

She finally answered his question, raising up her finger. "Angel. I have 6999 ESP'er points in this copy."

Joshua was speechless. It wasn't speechlessness out of surprise, but more like speechlessness out of disappointment for Penerope's skill at timewasting. He figured that showing Penerope this wasn't a dream wouldn't be as simple as he thought.

He also couldn't just make her an Angel based on that rank. That wasn't how this system worked. The closest thing he could do was make her a Reaper. Or a Reaper Officer at that.

If he wanted to, he could make her the Conductor, but at the moment, Joshua already had a Conductor. Killing his current Conductor would be pointless just for this.

Normally, the process of making someone a Reaper wasn't all that painful. In fact, one moment, they didn't have wings, the next, they did. However, Penerope wasn't from this world.

"Well, to prove it to you, I'll just do this!"

Joshua proceeded to snap his fingers. The next moment, Penerope felt this searing, ripping feeling in her back. It felt like something was pushing out of her back or trying to rip it apart. It seemed big too and felt like a sword plunging through her chest. The difference was that it was painful throughout instead of being painful one moment and then losing blood as soon as the sword was taken out.

Once whatever was now in her back began to push out, Penerope let out an ear-piercing wail. Joshua was starting to think he might've overdone it (as making a Reaper was as simple as mentioned), but then again, she asked for it. This wasn't the worst thing he had ever done.

Penerope blacked out once her thin, black skeletal wings appeared. The pain was too much to bear.

Still, it did indicate one thing that she was unaware of.

This wasn't a dream in the slightest.

XxXxX

(Reality)

She had never skipped out on a concert as long as they were friends. This was one of his most important concerts he had ever played piano for, yet Penerope had decided to skip it. The last bit of communication he had received from her was at around 4:30 PM, when Penerope mentioned something about sleep-texting. She usually arrived 30 minutes before the concert started to hang out with her friends.

It was 9:30 now. The concert, which had started at 5:00 PM and was four hours long, had ended 30 minutes ago, and Penerope didn't even show her goddamn face. Yuri, her grandmother did, but Penerope was selfish enough as to not.

The bottom line was that Akira Yamada was pissed. He had been trying to call Penerope and text her, but she hadn't picked up. Despite that Akira was upset, Penerope and Akira's other three friends in their friend group were not. Mayu was worried something bad had happened to Penerope (like she had been kidnapped while during a long game session); Rin had a similar feeling and was wanting to look for her (and kick the culprit's ass for it); and Makoto was simply convinced that someone had murdered Penerope before she had come to the concert.

All of them were aware of her plans for the day, being to finish 'Another Day' on her first The World Ends With You copy. Still, completing that chapter wouldn't take that long. It didn't the first time around, and since Penerope was wary of that copy, she'd probably try to finish it in record time.

It never took her this long to complete anything, especially if it was a short part of a game. Rin was done waiting for her friend, standing up and stamping her foot on the ground. There was an afterparty going on in the lobby of the concert hall, while the four fifteen-year-olds were still around the stage area.

She flipped her blonde hair and shouted, "Aight. We either gon' look for Pen, or we gettin' a bowl of ramen. The concert felt like forever!" Rin was starting to get dead set on the idea of making a four-man search party to find their friend. Mayu wasn't too keen on the idea, tugging nervously on her dark brown hair.

"Um… that might not be a good idea. It's late, and Penelope might be asleep or playing a long session of a game she hasn't completed yet. Or… someone kidnapped her."

Akira was still angrily trying to text Penerope but wasn't getting any responses. He glared at the end of the stage hall from where he was standing. "I'm ready to throw my phone across the room if she doesn't answer!"

"Akira, will you chill? When was the last time she texted ya?" Makoto asked, hoping to ease Akira.

It didn't work. "4:30. She stopped answering as soon as it occurred to her she was sleep-texting somehow. It's been 5 hours and I'm getting worried and angry."

That alarmed the other three. Mayu tried her best to smile and asked. "Well… did she say what her dream was about?"

"I was guessing it was about TWEWY since it was the game she was playing at the time. Remember when she had that one Mario Party DS dream when she played it after studying for the finals?"

Akira's phone buzzed, and he paused, stopping what he was saying. He checked the text, only to look puzzled. Rin, Mayu and Makoto were worried noting how he was troubled. They swarmed around him and tried to look at the text, only for Akira to push them away. He didn't understand the text.

"Yo man, what's the deal? Why won'tcha let us look!?" She asked, trying to shove her way in.

"I don't get what she means." Akira explained upon fully processing it.

Mayu tugged on her hair again. "Um… may I read it aloud? If it's ok with you, Akira."

Akira nonchalantly handed her his phone. "Go at it. Try and decipher it."

Mayu didn't appreciate the sarcasm, but she cleared her throat. "Ok… Ahem. Akira, this isn't a dream. I was wrong. I'm trapped in here."

As Mayu was reading, Penerope sent another text, so she continued reading (with Akira's permission, of course). "I wanted to complete 'Another Day'. That's all I wanted to do. However, this isn't the same world. I seriously can't complete the game because this IS the game and I'm stuck in its world."

Rin and Makoto weren't following it. Akira motioned for Mayu to respond. Awkwardly, she typed, "Hi, this is Mayu using Akira's phone. We were worried about you, Pen. What are you talking about though? How are you trapped? Do you need help?"

Penerope responded almost immediately, and Mayu read the text. "Mayu, I mean what I said. I've been trapped in 'The World Ends With You' by one of the characters! My game was another world and not entirely a game. I can't get out so easily."

Akira proceeded to take his phone back from Mayu and texted Penerope again. "Ok, this is Akira. Are you sure you're not kidding, and, how can you not get out? You missed the concert. Why didn't you respond either?!"

"Kana took my phone and didn't let me use it. I tried to reply, just to let ya know. I blacked out for a few hours once I got turned into a Reaper in the most painful way possible."

"Penelope, you're going to have to show evidence if I'm going to believe this."

There was a few long pauses between Penerope's last text and Akira's text that demanded for evidence. At first, Akira was triumphant, thinking that he managed to 'win' this battle until Penerope sent a photo over.

It was a photo that was rare of her to send, being a selfie. It was a known fact by Penerope's friends that she almost never took selfies because of their pointlessness. Akira didn't recognize the location Penerope was in, but he kinda recognized those wings. However, the memory was foggy.

Makoto recognized the location almost instantaneously. He grabbed at Akira's phone and snatched it from him without a word of permission and stared at it in shock. To see if this was reality, he rubbed his eyes. His jaw dropped as soon as it hit him. "Holy shiitake mushrooms."

Rin was upset that she was allowed to see virtually nothing of what was going on. "Wassup with the photo, Makoto? Why won'tcha let us look at it?!" Rin's complaining caused Makoto to raise up the phone. It took a bit for Rin to recognize the place, but Mayu understood.

"Huh? Is that the Dead God's Pad? How did Pen get in there?"

Akira raised an eyebrow. "The what?"

Makoto bopped Akira on the head and glared at him. "Look, you didn't play through the whole game or save your progress, so you're the only one left in the dark."

"Ok, but how do we know that place is real and that her wings are real? She could just as easily be cosplaying something."

Makoto frowned before proceeding to text Penerope again. "Hey, this is Makoto. Everyone is using Akira's phone this evening, except for Rin. Could ya verify that those are actual Reaper wings? Akira's not believing it."

"Of course he isn't." Penerope texted back. It took a few moments for her to verify, but yes, there actually were wings on her back.

Rin finally stole the phone (much to Akira's dismay. The last time she used his phone, she broke it and caused him to have to buy a new one). She was ready to (somehow) go over and kick whoever-did-this's-ass. "K, who did this? Where are they and where are you?!"

When Penerope texted back (knowing it was Rin), she replied, "Joshua; in the Room of Reckoning; and I'm in TWEWY's Shibuya. I don't know how I was dragged in here, but I wouldn't recommend going and trying to kick Joshua's ass."

"Look, I don't care if he has lasers. I have my fists!"

"Rin, don't. I'm already in a rough spot already, and I don't want you to make it worse."

"Still don't care."

"Rin, please stop being Beat. I'm pretty sure even Beat knows to not pick the wrong fights."

"Have you met the man yet?"

"No."

"K, then don't go preachin' because I'm gonna go kick that angel's ass!"

"How are you even going to get here though? You can't go trying to kick someone's ass if you don't know how to get to the place."

Rin nearly threw Akira's phone on the ground if he didn't take it from her as soon as possible. The blonde's face was flushed, and she stamped her foot down. "Goddammit! How are we gonna get there if we don't know how?!"

Mayu sighed, trying to calm the situation. She smiled at the others and spoke as they tried to figure out a game plan. "Ok, guys. Let's calm down before we dive headfirst into this or pop a blood vessel (Rin). Obviously, we can't help Penerope right away since this is more complicated than we thought."

"Whaddya mean we can't!?" Rin shouted, appearing visibly upset.

Mayu patted Rin on the head and looked at her seriously. She used a tone that was gentle, like the one she used when talking to her little sister Shinobu. Her deep brown eyes stared into Rin's chocolate brown ones. "We simply can't, Rin. Until both parties get more information, we're stuck."

Rin groaned out of frustration before pouting and crossing her arms. "Fiiiiine. Let's go get some ramen now. I'm starving!"

The quartet didn't have much to do at the moment. And they most certainly couldn't help their friend at a time like this.

For now, all they could really do was wait.

Especially as Penerope was just as lost as they were.


	4. Chapter 3: When Reality Sets In

Chapter 3: When Reality Sets In

Penerope had probably had the roughest day in her 15-year existence. She realized that yes, she was trapped in a video game, and her back hurt like hell. She wasn't adjusted to the Reaper wings that had aggressively came out of her back (upon her request to make it as painful as possible to wake her up). Now, Penerope liked video games a lot. She maybe wanted to visit a game world one day despite that was impossible.

She regretted that wish now and hated being trapped. The last world she wanted to be trapped in was the world of TWEWY though (for personal yet obvious reasons). She didn't know how long she was out, and despite having sent texts to her friends to describe the situation, getting out of here would be no easy task.

Her back still hurt like hell. Penerope wanted to rest so bad but didn't know where.

Three Reapers were still present in the room once Penerope woke up and once she was done texting her friends. Kana (of course) was still present and was probably the one who escorted her out of the Room of Reckoning; the candiest Reaper to ever walk the UG was still there and kept offering to take care of Penerope as she was injured; and Sho was silently observing the situation. Last she checked, Penerope was certain that Sho Minamimoto wasn't all that quiet. Uzuki and Kariya weren't present like they had been before.

The beige-haired reaper was getting upset by Penerope's constant denial. Puffing her cheeks, she looked at Kana. "Kanon! Why's this girl bein' so mean? She's hurt, and like, needs healing really bad."

" _Ah, so she's the valley girl type. This'll be fun._ " Penerope thought to herself in complete dismay, flipping her hair. Her back acted up again, causing her to groan.

The valley-girl reaper stamped her foot. "Will ya' let me heal ya?! You're like, being so unagreeable and stubborn right now!"

"Good. Stubbornness and disagreeableness are some of my strong points."

Kana interfered in the arguing. "Penerope, be nice to Coco. She's offering to help you and you're denying her." Penerope huffed, sitting on the couch by Sho. However, she was on the opposite side to give the guy space.

Kana and Coco kept trying to insist on helping Penerope, but she ignored them to the point where she decided she was just going to sleep upright on the couch. She wasn't going to put up with their arguing. She set her 3DS's case on the table and squeezed on M'sieur Lapin, eventually falling asleep.

The two girls sighed in disbelief at Penerope's behavior and sat back down on the couch. Coco looked around. "Conductor, sir, do you know where Ms. Konishi is? She's been gone for a while." Coco asked, surprising Kana.

It was like she had forgotten this was a thing. "Wait. Mr. Minamimoto's the Conductor? When did that happen? I thought Ms. Konishi became the Conductor."

Coco frowned and tilted her head to the side. "Mr. Minamimoto's been the Conductor for a little bit now. The Composer promoted him to Conductor a while after the past Conductor was erased." She indicated before sighing and narrowing her eyes.

"Oh, and Conductor, sir? D'ya know where Ms. Konishi is?"

"Her Iron Frostiness?" Sho replied back, still not looking at Coco. She nodded, hoping he was paying attention. "Nope. She's been in and out for a while. I don't know and don't care where she is."

Coco sighed at Sho's apathy and stood up. "Aw. You're such a killjoy sometimes, y'know." She sighed and pulled Kana up. To kill some time, Coco decide to drag Kana along shopping.

The two of them didn't have much to do after all.

XxXxX

(Day 2)

It was the second day in hell for Penerope. She woke up in the same place where she fell asleep, which was fortunate, but someone had also given her a blanket. The girl stiffened up and let out a loud yawn and stretched her tired body.

She folded up the blanket in her lap and stood up, yawning again. However, she dropped M'sieur Lapin as she was setting the folded blanket on the couch. While she was kneeling down to get M'sieur Lapin, she bumped into the table.

Penerope kept bumping into everything while she was trying to get her things and determine a plan of how she was going to leave this joint and was making a lot of noise as a result. A blonde, secretary-like woman emerged from a hall alertedly, and adjusting her glasses, she observed upon the scene.

She was unimpressed with Penerope's behavior as well as her noise, but there was also the fact she didn't recognize Penerope despite her wings. Though the girl might've rang a bell from somewhere, she couldn't quite tell where.

Still, lower Reapers weren't supposed to be in this area unless they were given special permission or were called there. The woman adjusted her glasses and cleared her throat. Penerope paused and tiredly looked up at her, recognizing her to be Mitsuki Konishi.

Aka, one of Penerope's least favorite Reaper Officers to face off against and was-supposed-to-be-dead-but-isn't-now. Penerope didn't like Konishi, but she decided that she wasn't going to show it.

"Who are you and why are you in here?" Konishi asked, crossing her arms and glaring at Penerope.

" _Oh look. It's the Iron Maiden. This is going to be fun._ " Penerope cleared her throat and flipped her hair. "Penerope Shiro; I ended up being dragged back in here after my back was assaulted and I went to sleep because I wasn't putting up with Kana or Coco."

Konishi stared at Penerope's wings and back at her. "…And when did you become a Reaper? Why are you still in here?"

"I became one yesterday, but I passed out when I got my wings." Penerope flipped her hair again and crossed her arms, glaring up at Konishi. "Why do you care whether or not I'm here though? From what I've heard, you tend to not be here very often. What, is it because you can't control everyone?"

Konishi looked irritated by the sass but tried to keep her cool. "I have my reasons for not being here. However, Reapers of lower rank aren't to be here in the Dead God's Pad."

Sho butted in out of nowhere. "By the way, Iron Frostiness, that kid is actually an Officer. Dunno when it happened, but she is."

Penerope was taken off guard, as was Konishi. This came out of nowhere! Besides, when the hell did Penerope become an Officer?!

"Wait, wait. Hold the phone. Did I get double-promoted or something when I became a Reaper yesterday thanks to my ESP'er rank?! All I knew is that I became a Reaper. I didn't know what rank of reaper I became."

Sho pointed in the direction of the Room of Reckoning. "Well, he told me that you were an officer. I still don't know why or how a new reaper got promoted so fast, but it happened."

Penerope was surprised that Sho was using no math terminology whatsoever. Unless he was banned from it or was too bored to use it. Or, he didn't know what to say for once (or didn't care. Sho was showing immense apathy to everything with his injury all of the sudden. Normally he was so driven, so it seemed a little out of character).

Once it was settled with Konishi and she left, Penerope proceeded to talk to Sho before he decided to slip out of her fingers. She caught his attention by taking his right hand, which was the non-injured one. There was a flash for a moment, but Penerope took no heed to it.

"So, Minamimoto. Where'd the math talk go?" Sho looked down at his hand, appearing somewhat shocked and then at Penerope in an annoyed fashion.

"My what talk?"

"Your math talk. Y'know, like calling people 'so zetta slow' and stuff like that."

Sho grumbled a math curse under his breath and glared at Penerope. "Look, fractal. I dunno what your deal is, or what you just did, or even how you know how I am despite how we've barely met, everything has been zetta slow lately."

"How? Has there not been any games? And there's also a lack of Reapers?"

"Yeah, that."

Penerope sighed, crossing her arms. "Well, you're not good at giving me answers. Anyway, I'm going to go eat. Bye, Conductor Minamimoto."

Now, Penerope couldn't just LEAVE Sho. It had nothing to do with the fact that Sho wanted to make a last word or anything, but it was actually do the fact Penerope had accidentally made a pact with him. Due to the nothingness remaining in the UG at the moment, there were few who actually made pacts. Usually, Reapers made pacts with their shadows (unless your names were Uzuki and Kariya, in which, they didn't). There was a case where a reaper made a pact, being the past Conductor, Megumi Kitaniji and a possessed Shiki.

Still, Penerope didn't even realize that she made a pact. She didn't realize that it was a thing. She didn't realize that she could even make a pact, especially noting the current circumstances.

So, when Sho followed her to get coffee and breakfast, it annoyed her (as she didn't realize what was going on). He kept tagging along behind her like he was some kind of lost puppy.

Honestly, Sho didn't like having to tag behind the new Reaper either. He felt like he was her babysitter. As the two of them remained unnoticed by society in the UG, Penerope stopped around the Pork City area and turned to face Sho. Her eye was twitching. "…Conductor Minamimoto."

"What."

"Why the hell have you been following me around all day?"

Sho didn't reply, causing Penerope to get even angrier. "…Do I need to #$ %# $ repeat myself. Why. The. Hell. Are. You. Following. Me?"

"…Because, fractal, you made a pact with me."

"I made a what?" As Penerope was getting flustered and upset with Sho, the two of them were suddenly attacked by taboo noise.

Now, it may be questionable as to why taboo noise were still a thing. It would be expected that they would've been dealt with by now. Still, here's the thing.

With a lack of games and the fact that in Week 3, Neku and Beat had to take down a bunch of Reapers, it definitely lowered their population. The taboo noise also hadn't been fully dealt with.

So, that's probably why there are so few Reapers left. Sho wasn't even fazed by the fact that they were there, but at they were fighting in separate spaces, Penerope was.

And that was when she realized that she had to fight more in this world in order to save her skin. If Sho went down (which was unlikely. Trust me, noting his health, it was unlikely he'd go down), she'd go down. However, Penerope was frailer than Sho, so if she went down…

Well, out went the Conductor and a Reaper Officer in one fell swoop!

And obviously, neither of them wanted to die. Especially Penerope. Penerope wasn't from this reality.

Think of this situation as "if you die in the game, you die in real life". Like, a literal situation of it. Another example could be in the anime "Sword Art Online" in two cases, where if you died in the game, you actually did die in real life or if you were killed by a certain person in game, you also died in real life. Of course, the two games mentioned in this anime aren't the same one, but this is also the fact that this is an anime.

Penerope's whole existence was sucked into this game and she was trapped in this world. If she did get erased, her existence would fade from both worlds in its entirety. Unless Joshua revived her, but Penerope was unsure if Joshua would be able to do that since Penerope was technically from a completely different reality.

Then again, even if Joshua could bring Penerope back from the dead or not, Penerope would rather die permanently than let him bring her back. Though… that would upset all of her friends in the real world. She didn't want to upset any of them. She knew that Mayu would be devastated if she was gone.

And Rin would probably hunt down whoever killed Penerope and give them the biggest ass-whooping they would ever experience in their life.

So, when Penerope saw a kangaroo taboo noise, she understandably freaked out. From what she knew, she didn't have any weapons on her. Unless M'sieur Lapin was her weapon, but she didn't know if she had the Groove Pawn psyche.

She stared at the kangaroo like a deer in the headlights. She was clueless and had no idea what she was supposed to do. There was also a crab and a porcupine, but the Reaper Officer just _stared_ at them like she had no idea what to do.

And then, M'sieur Lapin hopped out of her arms (like he was living) and acted like some kind of rabbit Mr. Mew. This was probably one of the Psyches that Penerope had access to. She jumped up, M'sieur Lapin jumped. She'd punch, M'sieur Lapin would punch. She kicked, M'sieur Lapin would kick. And if she did a headbutt or flipped her hair, M'sieur Lapin would do a headbutt, and with the hair flip he'd whip with his ears.

Now, that wasn't what was intended, but hey. It was something. Penerope proceeded to attack with M'sieur Lapin, ordering what to do through her motions. It wasn't entirely like Shiki's psyche, but it was similar to the Groove Pawn psyche. The problem was, when M'sieur Lapin was knocked back, he was basically knocked out, and now, Penerope had to use another alternative.

She wondered what the hell Sho was doing in the other space, because GOD, fighting noise was harder to actually do instead of play it in a game. She dodged and pulled out her 3DS. She wondered if putting in a game would do anything.

So, she put in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance to test it, the Keyblade she had equipped on the character she had last played (being Sora) appeared. It was the Ultima Weapon that she gained from hours of grinding and finally defeating a secret boss. The Noise stared at it a moment, unsure what it was. Penerope decided to attack with it and helped take down the Noise. She didn't know if it was doing much, but when she was passed the light puck, she was able to deal more damage.

Then again, the Ultima Weapon was a powerful Keyblade, but less damage was done to Taboo Noise due to their resistances. Still, they were eventually erased at one point, and it was probably from Sho doing more damage than she did (due to not being used to this situation). The Ultima Weapon turned back into Penerope's 3DS and she put it back in her case, zipping it back up. She also went over and picked up M'sieur Lapin.

Upon getting back into the same space, Penerope noticed that Sho was basically untouched from what happened. Penerope was slightly roughed up from tangling with the noise, but this idea was minor. They'd be healed up before they got into a fight again. Sho seemed a little unamused by Penerope's performance. "You need to pick up the pace. That was slow."

"Look, I didn't expect to be dragged into this mess and be thrown into a fight. Besides, why hasn't that seal been dealt with? Wasn't the Taboo noise seal deactivated?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't mean there aren't any left. There's still some here."

"What, did the Composer want new Reapers to die?"

"There have been no games lately, fractal, meaning there's been no new players." Sho corrected her. Penerope huffed, flipping her hair and sighing. She decided to send a quick group text to her friends to better explain the situation today before putting her phone away. The Officer continued her route to Pork City, and Sho followed her.

Penerope went up the floors to the rooftop, and gazed out upon the game-world Shibuya before her. She completely forgot about getting breakfast, but she was amazed at the hell that she was currently in. It looked a lot like home, yet so different at the same time.

If Penerope wasn't aware of the situation she was in, she'd probably mistake this as home.

It didn't matter right now though. She had to focus on getting out.

Breakfast also bubbled up as a reminder to Penerope, but she was unsure of any café's in the area…

Upon thinking 'café', she thought that she might've known a place. But she didn't know if it was still open. If it had been a few weeks since the last game had ended, it was likely that WildKat wasn't open. It seemed to be implied that Mr. Hanekoma wouldn't be there running it from the nature of the secret reports.

She didn't know, but it was worth at least checking. She spread her wings and flapped them, before looking back at Sho (who was still tagging behind her). "Hey Sho, is it possible to fly with these wings or are they just for decoration?"

"What do you think? Figure it out yourself." Penerope sighed at the Conductor's unhelpful comment and took a deep breath. She flapped her wings, wondering if it would do anything, but it surprised her when she started lifting off the ground. She started to feel like a bird and was impressed with her newfound ability.

Penerope wondered if she could hop off the building to fly to WildKat. It would be much easier than walking. However, she was a little hesitant since it would kind of being like committing suicide in a game world, so she went against it.

Sho, who was watching his partner, didn't understand what Penerope was doing. She seemed to be trying to decide whether or not she wanted to hop off the building and fly or run down to the first floor and fly. She seemed to be hesitating on both of the ideas.

"Flight isn't that hard. What, are you afraid of flight or something?"

"No, I'm not. I'm worried about dying in this world. If I die in the game, I'll die in real life." Sho didn't get what Penerope was saying about dying here and dying in real life, but it wasn't as much of a concern to him. He was more concerned about Penerope dying because of her incompetence, as she'd kill him if they were to both die.

Penerope made the executive decision to go down to the first floor and try to start flying to see if would do anything. Sho followed along, wondering why he was stuck with this. He watched Penerope flap her wings and start lifting off when she got back outside past the first floor until she stopped again. "Eh. I have legs. I can walk."

Sho's eye twitched. Why did she _bother_ going through all of that effort just to waste it in the end?! Penerope could sense his anger, and boredly looked back at her partner. "Ay, Minamimoto. You're gonna need to work on your anger if we're gonna be partners. I know that social interaction isn't your strong suit."

Sho trudged along behind Penerope as they were going to WildKat.

XxXxX

(Reality- Penerope's House)

While Penerope was heading along to WildKat in the TWEWY world, Akira and the others went to Penerope's House to see if they could get a better grip on what was going on. They tended to go to Penerope's House often, so Yuri was used to seeing them around. Akira knocked on the door, causing the elderly woman to come in and open it. Yuri was somewhat surprised to see Akira, as his visits were rare and few in-between. In fact, Penerope was commonly the one who visited Akira at his home.

She allowed the four of them in and closed the door behind them. Akira looked up the stairs. "Do you know where Penelope is?" He asked, looking back at Yuri. She shrugged.

"Eh. The kid's probably up in her room having a long game session again. I haven't seen her much since yesterday." Yuri explained dismissively and started heading towards the stove. "She'll probably let you all in her room though. Let me know if you need anything."

Akira and the others went up the stairs. Rin was the one who knocked, only for the door to open up. The light wasn't on, and only sunlight peeked into the room. There was also no trace of Penerope whatsoever. The only thing that WAS there was Penerope's black Nintendo DS Lite. It was closed, but it didn't appear to be on. Mayu frowned and proceeded to go over to Penerope's bookshelf/one of her game storage departments and looked through one of the drawers. She found a dark gray charger which she hooked up into the wall and plugged into Penerope's DS.

"Why'd ya do that, Mayu?" Rin asked as she sat on the bed while Makoto and Akira took a seat on the beanbags in Penerope's room. Mayu ran a head through her hair.

"Um… I was guessing Pen might've ran out of battery on her DS. She forgot where she put the charger. Last time I was over, she put it there, but probably forgot about it." She meekly answered. The others shrugged, finding it understandable. Mayu was the one who ended up loading Penerope's DS. So far, everything seemed normal.

TWEWY was in Penerope's DS at the time, which was understandable. Penerope wanted to complete the game, after all. Mayu loaded up The World Ends With You from the start screen and waited. Akira was somewhat anxious about what was going on, impatiently tapping his finger on his arm. "How's the game loading going?" He asked seconds later, looking back at Mayu.

She didn't seem to find anything wrong. The start screen was normal. Penerope's save file also appeared to be there, loading up as normal when Mayu hit load. It said that Penerope was on Week 3, Day 7. That was exactly where she was when she played last and was going to play Another Day. So, Mayu loaded up the game.

Here's the thing they were unaware of, however. When Penerope played the game, nothing loaded whatsoever when she attempted to load it up. However, when Mayu loaded it up, nothing seemed to load despite the fact it should've. Mayu tried to get it to work, but nothing seemed to work.

Akira sighed again and looked back at Mayu. "How's it loading now, Mayu?" She frowned and shook her head. She seemed pretty upset by what was going on. Her eyes looked pathetic.

"…Akira, it's not working! I don't know why…" Akira, getting fussy out of impatience with this game, stood up and decided he was going to _make_ this game work. They had to see whether or not Penerope was truly trapped or if this was an elaborate prank. Of course, ¾ of Penerope's friend group were fairly certain that Penerope was trapped, and Akira was almost 100% certain but still. They needed to know.

Akira aggressively made the game work by shaking Penelope's DS and nearly removing the game to see if it did anything. However, when Akira touched the game cartridge, the screen flashed an eerie white, and then the player pin appeared on the bottom screen for a moment.

So, from there, TWEWY loaded.

The graphics, the music and the atmosphere seemed to be normal.

Until… well…

Well, something was horribly wrong when they saw a sprite of Penerope moving on the bottom screen with what appeared to be a sprite of Sho Minamimoto hesitantly following Penerope around. Also, the game was working on its own.

This wasn't even a hallucination. This was reality.

Naturally, Penerope's friends freaked out. Mayu looked like she was going to faint ("Oh… I'm starting to feel a little light-headed, guys…" she whimpered); Akira was in utter disbelief as he turned even paler than he already was; Makoto shrieked and Rin.

Rin couldn't even restrain her panic and her bubbling anger. Suddenly, and over everyone else as they started panicking, Rin proceeded to yell, "HOLY SHIT, THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?! OH MY GOD!"

Fairly alarmed, Yuri came up the stairs to check on Penerope's friends. The sounds they were making bothered her. Upon hobbling up the stairs and into Penerope's room, she saw that 1), her granddaughter wasn't there and 2), her friends were there and all of them looked freaked out and like they had seen a ghost.

Yuri sighed and frowned at the children. "Alright. What's wrong. Why did Rin curse her vocal cords out?" She asked, causing the four to whisper amongst themselves. Well, three. Akira immediately got up, carrying Penerope's DS and showing her grandmother what happened to be wrong. The elderly woman adjusted her eyeglasses and stared at the screen. She recognized what was supposed to be Penerope.

Instead of nearly having a heartattack/panicking and going to call the police, Yuri frowned and stared at the screen. "My, my. I most certainly didn't expect that. My little Penerope is stuck in a video game. I knew it was going to happen eventually, but not literally." She stated as she stared at the screen. Akira looked upset at what was happening and the fact that someone had actually went and locked Penerope in a game against her will.

How and why did this happen?

Still, there was pure amazement hidden amongst the shock. Makoto was especially amazed. When Penerope had said that "something was wrong with her game", she was serious when she said something was wrong with her game. This had to be some kind of possessed or overly-self-aware copy of TWEWY or else this could have never happened.

Despite this, nobody knew what they were supposed to do. They couldn't call the cops on a fictional character or bring a DS in for interrogation over a kidnapped person. They also couldn't free Penerope because none of them knew how.

However, one thing was for certain—being that now, Penerope's friends were determined. They were going to help get their friend out of there, no matter what.

Especially as they couldn't allow for Penerope in this place for longer than she had to.


	5. Chapter 4: Limbo

Chapter 4: Limbo

Penerope had a wonderfully uneventful day with the added addition of feeling watched all of the sudden. It didn't bother her, as this happened before when she first came into this hellhole, but all she truly wanted now was to be let out. Due to her uneventful day, minus a few other important events, her second day of being in the TWEWY world was wasted, and now, she was put into the third day.

Oh, she also didn't do anything of importance on her third day. That was absolutely wonderful. Penerope loved the fact that she was dragged into a completely unimportant and boring week. It was amazing how there was a complete lack of anything. Why would the Composer bother bringing Penerope into the world in a time where nothing was happening? Was this the ending that she was supposed to receive for all her hard work and effort for completing all she was allowed to with this game? If so, this was an unsatisfying ending.

Fortunately, something happened on Penerope's fourth day. But that was only because she decided that she would make something happen. Penerope firstly decided to go and find WildKat. She tried to find where it was but forgot. Sho, as usual, ended up having to be dragged along with her due to their partnership (and Sho wanted it to end soon).

While on their Quest for the Holy Grail (or at least, the Holy Grail called WildKat), Penerope ended up finally meeting a seemingly familiar duo. The duo being Uzuki and Kariya of course. Penerope hadn't recognized them right away, as they looked more important (it was understandable, even though they had been important characters in TWEWY nonetheless, even if they were semi-major antagonists). She didn't recognize them right away as they looked different than last time.

Penerope wondered if the two of them had been promoted to Officers in the first place, noting how Kariya didn't want to become a reaper officer (as he'd strut around looking important and didn't get to roam around, on top of having other responsibilities) and how Uzuki, despite that she wanted to be promoted, didn't like how higher ups manipulated lower reapers.

Plus, there was also the fact they were roaming around too. Then again, Penerope and Sho were both roaming around. Penerope decided to go and confront the pair before they slipped from her grasp. Once Sho saw what Penerope was doing, he decided to sit back and watch as he didn't (yet did) have time for Penerope to be screwing around like this. She wanted to at least clarify something and also see what's going on.

"Hello again, Yashiro and Kariya! How are you?" Uzuki and Kariya paused in their tracks from Penerope's formality. They didn't recognize her voice or how she knew their names, but when they stopped and took a good look at the girl, they recognized her face. However, her reaper wings were surprising. They hadn't seen Penerope with wings before.

"…Who are you again?" Kariya asked, only for Penerope to pause. She remembered that she and Kana sort of walked into the Dead God's Pad and she didn't seem to bother to introduce herself to them.

Penerope decided that it would be best if she retained her polite behavior. "Oh right! I completely forgot to introduce myself." She explained, smiling nervously. "I'm Penerope Shiro. If my name doesn't ring a bell, I'm that new Reaper Officer."

Uzuki and Kariya appeared perplexed as to how this girl was a Reaper Officer, but they decided not to question it too much. "That makes four Officers then." Kariya indicated, as he twirled his lollipop a moment before going back to it. Penerope seemed surprised by this.

"Huh? Four? Did you two finally get promoted?" she asked. Sho, Uzuki and Kariya all gave Penerope an odd look, and she blinked at them. With a sheepish smile, she decided to change the wording of her question.

"Oh… haha. What I meant to ask was that you two were promoted?"

"Yep." Answered Uzuki. "And noting the state of the UG, it was actually a pretty good time." Uzuki seemed happier about getting a job promotion than Kariya did. It likely related to the fact that there was now more responsibility along with the job and that more work was involved.

Penerope raised an eyebrow. "A 'pretty good time'? How so?" Uzuki and Kariya looked to Composer Minamimoto, though he seemed apathetic to answering Penerope's question. It was evident that despite the fact she was new to the UG and technically a Reaper Officer, she was oblivious to what was happening in Shibuya.

Kariya answered the question. "Right now, after that last game, the UG has been going through that of a Renaissance. Though the game will mostly still stay the same, the system is changing. And as there are few Reapers right now, we have to set an example, whether we want to be in this position or not." Penerope observed Kariya when he mentioned the last part, justifying her thought about him not liking this new position. It sounded like he didn't have a choice to be here, and he didn't know why.

"Oh! I see. As there are few Reapers right now, you're wanting to help fix the system so those of lower ranks aren't used as pawns by the higher ups and generally make life better while working as a Reaper." Penerope asked, recalling what Uzuki wanted to do with her job if she were to ever get promoted, or just in general to have better satisfaction at work.

However, Officer Shiro put a finger to her lip and frowned. "…Actually, if there isn't a game, how are we supposed to recruit more Reapers? If Taboo Noise are still about, it will make it hard to have enough Reapers for proper games. I'm not really going to be around long anyway, I hope, but what are we supposed to do?"

"The main focus right now is to eliminate the rest of the Taboo noise. There shouldn't be too many left noting the efforts of the Reapers we do have and also how many Taboo noise were eliminated in the most recent game." Kariya indicated coolly. About then, there wasn't much else to say, and the pair of Reapers headed off, leaving Penerope and Sho behind.

Sho looked incredibly bored at this time, and once Uzuki and Kariya were gone, he stated to Penerope, "You are so zetta slow. All you did was waste time with talking."

Penerope rolled her eyes and thought to herself, " _And you didn't even BOTHER to talk, Conductor Minamimoto. God, that sounds weird in my head. Or even saying it._ "

However, the Officer paused when she could've sworn she heard Rin's voice echo in her head. " _Wait, when the hell did Sho become the Conductor? And why are Uzuki and Kariya GMs now? What is wrong with the world Pen's in?_ "

Penerope was silent, appearing startled. She looked around, trying to find where Rin's voice was coming from. Sho gave Penerope a weird look as her phone buzzed and she proceeded to check it.

It was Akira texting her. "Sorry if Rin startled you, Pen. You must've heard her through your DS Lite's microphone. This is the craziest nonsense that I've ever seen in my life."

"Huh? What about my DS?" Penerope texted Akira in confusion.

"You ARE trapped in the game. You literally have a sprite and everything. Still, we're here keeping an eye on you, and if you get into a fight and are having issues, Makoto said he'd handle it."

"What?" Penerope texted again.

The next thing she saw was a photo of herself trapped in the game, with her and Sho's sprites and everything that was normally on TWEWY's screen being there. Penerope nearly dropped her phone in a panic, but she kept her composure. Sho was giving her the strangest look that he could muster.

Penerope straightened up and shook her head. "Why in the hell can't I escape this demonic video game dimension?! God, I need some coffee. Or something. Come on, Sho!" The Reaper Officer was quick to storm off, trying to find her direction towards Cat Street. She was hoping that something wouldn't go horribly wrong on their way there.

XxXxX

(Reality- Penerope's Room)

While Penerope was on her way to Cat Street in game, Makoto was the one who handled Penerope's DS. He was supposed to help maneuver Penerope and her partner if she got into a battle with… something. Taboo noise were probably the only enemies that Penerope had to deal with in this version of the TWEWY world, as she was technically a Reaper. Makoto was worried that he didn't have much of an influence on the game, however (as Penerope could move herself just fine).

When she got into a battle with some Taboo noise, Penerope didn't have very many pins equipped. Of course, she wasn't Neku, and she didn't have command over all the pins. Sho was also her partner on the top screen, and Makoto was genuinely confused on how Penerope and Sho's attacks worked. It wasn't like the game was going to give them a tutorial or something this time.

The game still seemed capable of handling itself, though Penerope was still getting heavily damaged from a loss of what to do. M'sieur Lapin ended up being knocked out again, leaving Penerope defenseless.

Naturally, Makoto was panicking, and everyone else was panicking (Akira was more angry, if anything). In a loss of what to do for actions, Makoto tapped on the screen where the pins Penerope had equipped would've been as she was pulling out her 3DS and turning it on. It changed into the Ultima Weapon with that.

A split second after Makoto tapped the screen, Penerope's pins that she had equipped from her other copy of TWEWY appeared. Penerope and Sho were surprised by the sudden change of effectiveness, and Penerope immediately healed Sho and herself. Technically, they had a lot of health already (noting Sho's massive HP bar), but Penerope's frailness didn't help much with conserving it.

Somehow, Penerope became more helpful with the pins she was now able to use. She brought up icicles to harm the taboo noise from her Blizzard Cool pin.

She was also armed with her Ultima Weapon and attacked with that. At some point, Sho and Penerope got the light puck, though before Penerope could do anything significant with the power, Sho took the noise down.

When they were out of the space where they fought noise, Sho seemed somewhat impressed. "Heh. Maybe you aren't as much of a hectopascal of a partner than I first thought." He stated, slightly relieved that maybe he didn't have to do everything to prevent them from being slaughtered. Penerope still wasn't used to actually having to handle the battle system in real life.

It was hard to get used to. It reminded her of having to go through the long battle system tutorial at first, but more taxing on her health and far more difficult to deal with. She sighed, wondering how much longer it was to Cat Street. Her thoughts were evident when she remained idle in thought for a moment, and Makoto frowned, tapping on it.

Penerope proceeded to talk to Sho in the game.

"So, how much longer will it be till we get to Cat Street? Are we even going in the right direction?" Penerope asked, looking somewhat impatient on screen.

"Probably. Don't you have a map?"

"You're not helping!" Penerope exclaimed.

Makoto frowned at the screen as Penerope was struggling to figure out directions. He was pretty sure that they were going in the right direction of Cat Street by the looks of the map. Makoto looked back at Akira and the others.

"…D'ya think I should take control and help her get to Cat Street?"

"As long as you don't let her get killed, I'm fine." Akira answered, appearing bitter. "And if you figure out who did this to her while you're playing, see if you can fight them."

"The game doesn't just trigger battles at a drop of the hat though…" Mayu indicated, running a hand worriedly through her long hair. "Either they're supposed to happen, or you somehow make them happen like with getting into battles with normal noise. Or there's Taboo noise." She appeared to nervously clamp her hands together, like there was something else she wanted to say but couldn't.

"Is there something else that you want to say Mayu? You look upset." Akira pointed out, a little suspicious of his friend and her actions.

Mayu looked at the ground. "Um… not really. This whole situation is nerve-wracking… I'm just worried that there's more than meets the eye to this situation. Especially as it looks like there's one figure in the background that keeps following Penelope…"

"Sho? You mean Sho?" Makoto asked as he was starting to take control. Mayu shook her head and came a bit closer, slightly leaning over at the screen. As Makoto was controlling the direction Penerope and Sho were going, and they were getting to Cat Street, Mayu stiffened up and pointed out what she was seeing.

"There! Do you see them?" Mayu asked, pointing at a figure and making Makoto stop controlling Penerope and Sho. The stop was sudden and confusing to the both of them.

Makoto didn't have much control of what happened next, as it seemed like the game was taking control again. Akira and the others were unsure what was going on from there.

XxXxX

Penerope felt weird after a surge of knowing where to go all of a sudden, and then stopping in Cat Street and completely forgetting what she was doing until she remembered why she wanted to be in Cat Street in the first place. WildKat was still there, which was fortunate, though Penerope was stopped before she could finally head to her destination.

"Hiya Miss Shiro! Seems you've been busy today, huh?" Penerope easily picked up on Kanon's voice and turned to look at her. Sho seemed somewhat confused as to why Kana was there, but then again, there wasn't much that they really could do at the moment and they were so limited in their numbers already. The harrier reaper's hair bounced as she came over to speak with Penerope, and she moved Sho to the side.

Penerope shrugged, really thinking about what she was doing. "I guess. Were you following me?" the officer asked, looking confused, and even a little concerned.

"I wasn't till I felt something off. I feel like SOMEONE's trying to interfere with you being here." Kana stated, before briefly looking to her right and appearing like she was glaring at someone. Penerope raised an eyebrow, noticing how Kanon seemed to be more aware of the situation than she was letting on.

"Someone trying to interfere? Hah. That's ridiculous." Penerope stated. She was very well aware that her friends were helping her on the outside while she was trapped in here. But Kana… well, Kana was supposed to be a regular Harrier. There was no way she KNEW about the outside…

…Right?

Kanon crossed her arms. "The Boss doesn't want anyone interfering with your… experience here, Miss Shiro. And you have _friends_ on the other side." She hissed, indicating that she knew about Akira and the others. A stern frown appeared on Penerope's face, and she glared at Kana as she crossed her arms. "As much as I'd love to prevent them from interfering, that's out of my league. Only the Boss can do that."

"By 'Boss', you mean Sho?" Penerope asked, pointing back at the Conductor. Sho shrugged, struggling a little with his injuries. Still, he looked somewhat confused as to what she was talking about. Kanon rolled her eyes.

"I don't mean the Conductor. Sure, Conductor Minamimoto is my boss, but he's not THE boss. I'm talking about the Composer." A chill went down Penerope's back upon being reminded of Joshua. It didn't make sense that Kana was aware of what the Composer was doing, however. It seemed odd as she was technically a Harrier Reaper. The closest contact the Composer typically had was with the Conductor and the Producer.

"…Huh? How are you aware of what the Composer is doing? Don't you report to the Conductor?"

"Sorta, but not really. I have a special job."

" _Of course, you're the special snowflake that gets a special job from the Composer. Lemme guess. You're a super officer. Or even the second Conductor. Tell me what's oh-so special about you, Kanon._ " Penerope thought to herself infuriatedly. Kanon looked somewhat annoyed by how Penerope was acting.

"Sheesh! It's not as 'amazing', as you're thinking it to be." Kana stated, pouting at Penerope. "In fact, my 'special' job is that I'm the Reaper Enforcer."

Penerope paused. She had never heard of that kind of title before within the Reaper ranks. "…When did the Reapers need an enforcer? What do you even do?"

"I'm supposed to keep everyone in line, especially noting the weak state that the UG is in and the state of the Reapers after that last game." Kana indicated. "If a Reaper is breaking the rules of the UG, I can punish them for it. And if push comes to shove, I can even erase them."

"…I know the UG has rules, but why do you need to enforce anything? And what is the extent of your power?"

"Once again, since the UG is in a weak state, we need someone to keep order as the Conductor doesn't do it, and we don't have a lot of Reaper Officers to help keep the structure." Kana stated, basically calling Sho incompetent while she was right there. "I'm probably allowed to get to where I can erase an officer. Probably the Conductor, even, as he's technically on probation. The Composer doesn't want to be erased by Mr. Minamimoto after all."

Penerope frowned at such and looked back at Sho. "…So, the Conductor is injured and on probation? How did he get on probation?"

"Do you know nothing about the last Reaper's Game we had?" Kana asked, looking somewhat upset. Penerope blinked at Kanon.

"…I know a lot about what happened. In fact, I basically KNOW everything that happened. In some ways, I was an eyewitness." Penerope answered, sounding a bit offended. "I just don't know why Sho is on probation. I doubt he's been the Conductor long."

"Conductor Minamimoto hasn't." Kana replied, before frowning. "Then again, I haven't been a Reaper for long myself. I came in at an inconvenient period where nothing was happening, so I decided to become a Reaper."

"What? Why are you the Reaper Enforcer then?!" Penerope asked, getting confused at how she got a special privilege so fast. It made less sense noting the time when she came in as well.

"Girly, you have no idea how easy it is to use your talents and get recognition when the system is going through repairs and there are fewer reapers around." Kanon stated, crossing her arms and then frowning. "I'm still not incredibly experienced yet though. A there haven't been more games, I haven't been able to raise my ESP'er points up as much. I've still been able to raise them steadily and survive, but from the lack of games, I've been given an exception to live."

Penerope frowned at such. "That's weird. If people die, why not play the Game? It opens up more opportunity to raise your score and gain more power."

"The Game that the Composer and the previous Conductor played really messed up the UG." Kana replied dismissively. "At the moment, for a variety of reasons, we don't have enough Reapers or Officers to play."

"How in the hell do you not have enough people? Does it have anything to do with incompetence and the lack of powerful Reapers?"

"Sorta. Our focus is the Taboo noise right now. We kinda just have to recruit people, but they also have to prove themselves to be strong enough to be Reapers. There's a sort of minigame that acts as a test right now in place to handle that."

"Why not have an actual game then!?" Penerope asked, feeling like this conversation was going into circles.

"The Taboo noise present are making it too dangerous, from what I understand." Kana replied, glaring at Sho, as if reminding him this was partially his fault. "Sure, a lot of them were eliminated, but for some reason, there's still a lot of nasty ones left. The 'game' right now is to eliminate them."

Penerope face palmed and dragged her hand down. " _Look, there may be Taboo noise, but that doesn't excuse Joshua, or anyone for that matter for not holding a friggin' game! That didn't stop anyone last time. It was a major inconvenience to everyone involved for 2/3 of the last game, yes, but it wasn't like they straight-up cancelled the game for Taboo noise. If there's Taboo noise, why not hold a game to help eliminate them? It would probably solve a lot of your problems._ "

As Penerope was thinking, her phone buzzed. She took it out of her pocket and frowned at Kana a moment. "Sorry. I need to check my phone really quick." She apologized, before checking her text. Kanon appeared to be irritated by Penerope's phone.

She let out a low hiss under her breath. "If the Composer let me, I would've shattered that stupid device a few days ago…" Penerope looked up in the middle of reading her text from Akira, looking confused.

"Did you say something, Kanon?"

A look of mysterious innocence brightened up upon Kana's face, and she immediately shook her head 'no'. Penerope looked suspicious, especially as Akira sent her another text while she was in the middle of reading his last one. If it was a thought, Akira tended to send really long texts. This was one of those situations.

"So, Penelope… while we've been watching this conversation between you and Miss Red n' Black, I've been thinking. Since you're trapped in a video game and everything is wrong, what if the reason they haven't had another Reaper's Game is that they CAN'T have another game? You were technically supposed to be at a point where you can go to the bonus mission and replay other missions to complete it. I think the actual situation is that they're stuck in limbo."

Penerope's eyes brightened up in realization. Though the reality of the game had been warped, as they were literally confined to a video game, Joshua likely couldn't exceed control over the main campaign. The main campaign of TWEWY was over, and it made it impossible to have another game within the game. Life may have been able to continue, but the 'game' itself couldn't.

Still, she read that second text as well noting that Akira had sent a second text in the middle of this. She wondered how long her friends were there at her house while she had been stuck.

The second text's contents bothered her. "Mayu mentioned that something about Kanon bothers her. Especially that one line of text about your phone. You need to be careful around her, as something definitely seems weird, and I think she's more aware of what she's going on than you let on."

" _Kanon DOES know a lot more about my situation than she should…_ " Penerope thought to herself and straightening herself up. Smiling at Kana, Penerope said, "I probably should start getting going. I'm still pretty tired and I want to get breakfast."

Kanon furrowed her eyebrows together. "…Isn't it a little late for breakfast?"

"Nah. Breakfast is good anytime. Now, if you excuse me…" Penerope finally headed to WildKat. For some reason, Sho remained outside and didn't follow her in, but Penerope probably had a feeling as to why.

She was glad she could finally head in to WildKat.

Though what she was going to end up finding would end up surprising her.


	6. Chapter 5: The Talk

Chapter 5: The Talk

While Penerope was handling affairs in WildKat, Akira and the others were discussing how they were going to handle what to do with Penerope's DS and who would take over. For the past few days with what they were allowed to see until the game cut off, they had just been leaving their friend's DS at their house. But, with the situation with the noise and the fact Penerope was having difficulty learning how to defend herself, it seemed that she needed more help than they thought.

Mayu decided to handle Penerope's DS for the rest of the day and then she'd pass it on to Rin, and then Rin would pass it on to Makoto. They were unsure if Akira—as much as he was concerned with the situation—wanted to handle taking care of Penerope's DS. His schedule was soon to get busy again with his piano lessons and other things going on that he had to attend to.

While Mayu was beginning to take care of Penerope's DS and getting everything she needed, Penerope was in WildKat as she was supposed to be. She got what she needed, though she completely forgot about Sho as she did so. As she was leaving, however, she had to pause as someone acknowledged the fact she was there.

It began when Penerope was tapped on the shoulder and she nearly dropped her coffee. "I know this is a strange time to ask, but were you that person who randomly appeared in the street the other day? You seem incredibly familiar."

Penerope sighed and paused, turning around. She wasn't paying very much attention to who she was addressing. "Ah. I find it a little weird that someone would remember that I was there in the street for a bit, but yeah. I was. I dunno how that would seem familiar though."

"I was asking as it reminded me of a situation I recently got out of. You're not from here, are you?" The Reaper Officer froze up once she snapped back into reality and recognized who was talking. It was firstly from their voice, but their blue eyes, headphones, and particularly spiky orange hair helped reveal their identity.

Why was Penerope not surprised to be running into Neku Sakuraba at a time like this (especially as she was on Cat Street)? It surprised her a little that he was at WildKat. What surprised her even more was the fact that this place was already cleaned up and it seemed to be back in order.

The only other thing that was strange was the fact that Mr. H was there, but he also seemed troubled by something. Then again, noting he was that 'fallen angel' who helped Sho with constructing that Taboo Noise sigil, it made sense. The problem was that those who were in the café right now were eyeing Penerope's presence peculiarly, especially Neku and Mr. H.

"…Huh? Why would you think I'm not from here?" Penerope asked, almost sweating a little. "I mean, I sort of am, but it's complicated to explain."

Immediately after, Penerope thought, " _It's also weird that you're approaching me all of a sudden Neku. What about me bothers you that much that you had to approach me?_ "

"…You seem familiar from elsewhere. Like you shouldn't be here but are."

" _I'm so confused to how he's catching on to me that fast. Joshua was aware of my presence, but… wait._ " Penerope stared at Neku in an awkward silence. She wondered if she could access her other copy of TWEWY again and see if she could access the Player Pin. Neku technically wasn't a player anymore, as he was alive once again, so it should've given Penerope access to read his thoughts.

At least, _theoretically_ speaking. She just didn't know if her 3DS would activate out of battle. However, she paused upon feeling like someone was taking control of her again, and she felt weight in her skirt pockets. When she stuck her hand into one of her pockets, she felt pins in there. She pulled some of them out to find her favorite pin set and a Player Pin.

Penerope gazed at the Player Pin in silence, and then began to focus, tapping into its power. " _C'mon… focus…_ " Penerope thought to herself.

She was able to read Neku's mind from there (noting he was alive and not a player in this instance). His thoughts surprised her though.

" _I know what she's doing. She's reading my mind. It's strange she's doing it right here, right now instead of doing so invisibly in the UG, but something about her really doesn't feel right. Is she the 'spectator' that Joshua mentioned?_ "

Penerope paused and straightened up. "…Wait, what?" She asked, upon processing the word 'spectator' and staring at Neku in confusion. Neku frowned, looking around the café. It was mostly empty, though there were some other strangely familiar people there. He decided to take it outside and test something.

Penerope quietly took a sip of her coffee as they went outside, and she had to force herself her RG form. She knew that Kana and Sho were still outside, but she tried to focus. She wasn't used to being in an RG form, and she could see some people passing by. "So… why did you make me take this outside, Neku?" Penerope asked, only for Neku to frown and raise an eyebrow.

"And how do you know my name?"

" _Goddammit._ " Penerope hissed to herself, remembering she hadn't properly introduced herself. She decided to answer by avoiding the question. "Don't worry about it. How did you know I was reading your mind? And… spectator?"

"Your Player Pin." Neku answered, pointing at the pin Penerope had been clutching in her hand, and then going to her other question. "As for 'spectator', Joshua mentioned it to me. I don't know why you have a player pin, but as you're visible here, I'm guessing that you're a Reaper."

" _Ugh! He's really good at this. Then again, he was stuck in the Reaper's Game for three weeks, but still!_ " Penerope continued to complain to herself in her head. She tried to remain calm. "Alright, alright, alright! You're figuring this out way too easily, and I don't appreciate it. Who the heck is the 'spectator'? You never talked about this in-game…"

Neku gave Penerope a confused look when she said 'in-game'. "In-game? I have no clue what you're talking about, but you seem to know about the game I was in… though I haven't seen you. Or… have I?" Penerope began to sweat nervously, and she felt her phone vibrate.

"Uhhhhhhh? Nevermind that! Who the heck is the spectator though?"

"Joshua said that someone outside of the game was watching us and controlling our actions as I progressed through the weeks." Neku answered in some thought. "It was when we were heading to Cat Street—or where we are now. This 'spectator' witnessed the whole three weeks of the game. I wasn't aware of it until Joshua pointed it out."

" _…Yeah and it took me three whole weeks to complete this goddamn game. I completed the game… at least, what I COULD complete with what I knew from my first run. And I really, REALLY want to check my phone._ " Penerope felt a chill down her back, noting the situation she was in.

She really **couldn't** check it right now. She tried to speak as normal. "...Huh. He did? Who's… uh… Joshua, I guess?"

"A friend of mine." Neku answered. "And noting that you're a reaper… or at least, you're supposed to be one, it's likely you don't know who he…"

Penerope's instincts came in despite the fact she was trying to put on the illusion that she knew something but also nothing about what was going on. She ended up blurting things she probably shouldn't have said (and fortunately, there were few people out at this time). "He's the Composer. I'm sorry, I DO know who he is, and he's the reason I'm in this mess in the first place…"

A creepily familiar voice spoke from behind Penerope. " ** _Miss Shiro. That's enough talking._** "

"Eep!" Penerope gasped, freezing up and turning around to see Kana. Neku looked confused as he tried to see her, but he went quiet when he saw Kanon and Penerope 'vanish into thin air'. He knew what had just happened, but he found it a little weird that Penerope was suddenly forced to stop talking as she was pulled back into the UG.

Penerope nervously drank her coffee as she joined back with Sho. Kanon seemed… less than impressed with her. Penerope could see Neku from the UG, and he seemed somewhat troubled from what he saw. Naturally, he went back into WildKat, but it looked like he had other reasons for returning back in.

However, Penerope was startled when she was hit with a searing feeling down her back, and she let out a yelp. She heard Sho speak. "Alright, radian-"

"Enforcer Koizumi. My title is technically Enforcer Koizumi, Conductor Minamimoto."

"Don't interrupt me, _radian_." Sho proceeded to hiss at Kana upon being corrected. Penerope rubbed her back but felt her blood chill upon seeing Kana's sudden change of demeanor. She had a cold, emotionless look on her face, which was unlike what Penerope knew… or thought she knew.

"Sir, I'd appreciate it if you didn't chastise me with mathematical terms." Kanon stated, sounding irritated. "You know that I have the ability to _punish_ you if you're out of line. You're still on probation, even if Miss Shiro is your partner. Speaking of which…"

As Penerope was looking away and trying to get on her phone, she was struck with a searing feeling on her arms. " _Knock it off with the phone before I break it, Miss Shiro. The Composer doesn't want you connecting too much with the outside world._ " She threatened, only causing Penerope to frown.

"Are you sure it's Joshua not wanting me to communicate with the outside? I'm pretty sure you've taken more of a problem with it than he has, Kanon." Penerope indicated, crossing her arms and frowning at her.

"Do you want me to take you to the Composer so you can ask?"

"…Isn't it technically the Conductor's job to deliver messages from the Composer to the Reapers? I'm unsure if you're supposed to interact with him so easily." Penerope argued, only for Kanon to frown.

"Yes, because Mr. Minamimoto does his job as the Conductor. It's not like he did as a Reaper Officer."

Sho huffed at Kana. "Yeah, because that factoring hectopascal of a Composer has been letting me do my job." He grumbled, causing Penerope to look over at her dismayed partner in alarm.

"You've actually wanted to do your job?"

Sho gave Penerope a look. "Do you think I wanted to be in this position?"

Penerope blinked, before thinking about it. "…No. You wanted to be the Composer, but what you got in return was being crushed by cars. And now you're the second-in-command, and you're still injured."

The Conductor was amazed that Penerope knew that information, but he didn't question it. Kana demonstrated obdurateness with her opinion. "I mean it with the phone. If you're so uncertain about whether or not you can use it, I can just take you to the Composer right away."

"…Or, if he's aware of what's going on, he could just contact me." Penerope grumbled, checking her phone again. As if on cue, as she was checking the text she got but wasn't able to read from Kana's intervention, she got another text.

"Penelope, if you're really concerned about this as a problem, it would be preferable if you just came to the Room of Reckoning. It's easier to explain directly than just explain in text." Penerope went silent at the text, and assuming it was Joshua, she was confused how he got her number.

…That is, until she quickly remembered that the Conductor and Game Masters sent unremovable messages to Players' phones to remind them of the missions at hand. That's probably how Joshua sent her the message. Either that, or from the fact that she was in the game, and since her phone and her existence were literally encoded now, Joshua somehow got it from there.

She then checked Mayu's text. "Pen, I'm beginning to get this feeling that certain people are far more aware of what's going on than you are. I'm pretty sure that Neku, and even Mr. H know more about what's going on than you do—Neku especially, despite the fact that he shouldn't be aware of your existence."

" _I'm getting scared from how aware most I've met are except for me. Am I really that oblivious?_ "

Mayu sent another text. "Oh! No, no, no, no! I don't mean it like you're oblivious (keeping in mind I can see your thoughts). I mean, there's something more going out of this situation and you need to be careful. Enforcer Koizumi is freaking me out."

" _She's freaked me out since I got here._ " Penerope irritatedly thought to herself.

When Penerope looked up, Kana was giving her a look that could kill. The Reaper Officer felt her blood freeze, and she clutched onto M'sieur Lapin (she forgot she had him with her for a while).

This situation was far more stressful than Penerope thought it'd be.

XxXxX

(Day 5)

Penerope decided to talk to Joshua on the fifth day she was stuck. She was trying to formulate a plan as to how she was supposed to get out of this hellish situation but was unsure where to go. By now, the cursed DS had been handed to Rin, leaving the blonde to help Penerope make her decisions.

The first thing Penerope did was go and talk to Joshua in the Room of Reckoning. As Penerope was remaining in the Reaper's Lair for the rest of her 4th Day and the beginning of the 5th, she took the initiative to properly go to the Room of Reckoning—a place she had been near but refused to go into. Sho remained in the area, but he didn't follow Penerope unless she went outside the heart of the UG.

While she was on her way there, she kept hearing Rin's voice in her head. It was understandable, as Rin had a habit of not using her phone at times to communicate (Rin was more direct and preferred to actually TALK to someone than text them. As a result, technology tended to be frustrating to her). " _Why are you heading to the Composer's area?! Isn't that a bad idea? C'mon, Pen, you have to be smarter than this!_ "

"…Did Mayu tell you NOTHING about yesterday, Rin!? Good grief." Penerope hissed to herself as she trudged forward.

" _Huh? Well, she did mention she'd text me something._ "

"It's probably what you need to know then. I can't tell you everything."

" _Why can't you at least say something then?_ "

"Because I don't want to be here for longer than I have to. The most preferable option is to deal with Joshua in tiny doses. That way, I don't hate myself later."

" _Why would you hate yourself for it though?_ " Penerope sighed and rubbed her temples. She decided that she wasn't going to discuss this with Rin. While Rin continued to jabber on and on, Penerope continued walking through the Trail of the Judged. The door to the Room of Reckoning was next.

When the brunette entered, she felt a chill down her back. The Room of Reckoning was just as intimidating as it was on the first day Penerope had come into this world. She hadn't even seen the Composer—Yoshiya Kiryu—yet today, but honestly, she didn't care. She had to make this go as quickly as possible.

Penerope headed up the path, getting as close to the tall throne as she could tolerate. She was taken off guard when Joshua appeared in his 'true' form (as she was accustomed to seeing him in his RG form). The divine aura that radiated off of him was a scary feeling, and Penerope almost wanted to bow.

…Though she didn't. She didn't have enough respect for Joshua to bow down to him.

The Composer seemed unamused with Penerope. "Once again, you're very good at keeping people waiting, Penelope. It seems you've set a new record, as you waited nearly a day before coming here to talk to me." He stated, with a wave of his hand. From the distance she was at, and noting Joshua's form, it was difficult for Penerope to pick up Joshua's expression.

"You were waiting? Huh. I didn't realize you were expecting me." Penerope replied, crossing her arms and frowning. "Still, while I've been here, I've developed a lot of questions, but I haven't received a lot of answers."

Joshua feigned offense. "Oh? And you didn't try to come and ask me? I'm hurt."

Penerope rolled her eyes at the Composer's sarcasm. "Well, I'm asking now, so listen. Firstly, what's such the big deal about me and my phone? Kanon has been awfully touchy about it. Secondly, what is the actual problem with the Reaper's Game? It's odd that you haven't had any, and though Kanon said that you 'don't have enough reapers', it just doesn't make sense as you recruit more through the Reaper's Game." She indicated.

There was a long pause. Penerope stared at Joshua in response, unsure if he was glitching out or just trying to process this situation. Or maybe, he was trying to figure out which question to address first. The pause went on for a while, and Penerope was unsure whether or not she was supposed to be concerned. Maybe she broke the Composer.

Penelope put a hand on her hips, and started to get a little impatient, tapping her foot. "…Hey? Could you please answer my questions? Didn't you want to 'explain the situation' to me, here? Or did you lie to me?"

Joshua remained quiet, before finally speaking. "…I just had to deal with something a moment. There are spectators watching us, after all."

"…Spectators? Are you talking about my friends?"

"Who else would I be talking about?" Joshua asked Penerope back, causing her to sigh in annoyance.

The Officer was getting this feeling that Joshua was transitioning into talking about the problem with Penerope's phone and being able to contact her friends. Just as he was about to speak again, her phone vibrated, and she apologized before going to check it. "Yo, Pen, what's up with your DS? It shut off and it won't let me turn it back on. I plugged the charger in, and it's chargin', but something's wrong with it!" Rin texted, and Penerope went silent.

Penerope slowly moved her head to stare at the Composer with utter disbelief. "…Joshua."

"Yes, Penelope dear?"

Penerope took a deep breath before she spoke.

And by 'spoke', I mean 'chastise'.

" ** _FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP USING YOUR SUPERNATURAL ABILITIES TO RUIN MY LIFE?! I JUST WANT TO GO HOME!_** "

Despite the fact that Joshua was technically Penerope's superior and she shouldn't have been referring to him so casually, or even shouted at him, the Composer took it fairly well. Instead of shouting back, he proceeded to chuckle at Penerope out of amusement and he grinned at her.

Penerope could sort of see his expressions, but it was still difficult.

"My, Penelope. You can really shout when you want to, hmm?" He rubbed his head a moment and sighed. "Still, I'd appreciate it if you didn't shout at me. The Room of Reckoning almost has an echo to it. I bet all of Shibuya could hear your shout."

"…We're in the UG. I doubt that all of Shibuya could hear me." Penerope stated, not getting the fact that Joshua didn't mean it literally. The Composer almost appeared disappointed with Penerope for not getting what he was talking about, but he shrugged it off. There were other matters that needed to be discussed, and Joshua knew that he hadn't quite answered Penerope's questions yet.

"…Getting back on topic, I know that you want to know what's going on. I suppose I'll start with the "issue" of your phone."

" _Finally._ " Penerope bitterly thought to herself out of pure impatience and frustration.

The Composer sighed and shrugged. "I told Miss Koizumi that 'Officer Shiro is likely to not get the most out of this experience if she's absorbed with going home. Naturally, her phone allows her to contact the outside world, so it would be best if her usage is limited. Then again, we can't STOP her from using her phone, and ultimately, her decisions can't be controlled by us'. However, I made a slight oversight when considering how she'd take my order."

"Why has Kanon been acting in place of Minamimoto? If you appointed Sho Minamimoto to become the Conductor, shouldn't HE be acting as the Conductor? And when and why is Koizumi the Reaper Enforcer?"

"Noting the way Sho is, recalling the last game, it was necessary to put him on probation. Despite he's the Conductor, it is difficult for me to properly trust him. Also, knowing Minamimoto, it seems unlikely that he'll desire to properly do his job even if he's trained to do it. He doesn't like cooperation after all." Joshua calmly explained. "As Miss Koizumi is fitted to be in a role to enforce and keep others in line, she's mostly acting in Minamimoto's place, but she's also meant to keep an eye on the others and prevent from corruption in the hierarchy."

"'Corruption in the hierarchy'? Does this have anything to do with the 'Renaissance of the UG' that I was told about?" Penerope asked, wondering what was going on.

"Ah, so Officer Kariya and Officer Yashiro mentioned it." Joshua mentioned quickly, before continuing. "While Shibuya is improving and reforming, the UG is going through the same thing. All sorts of things are changing."

Now that they were talking about the UG, Penerope decided to keep the ball rolling and hit the big question that had been bothering her ever since Kanon had mentioned it. "…Alright. So, Kanon mentioned that in some ways, there is a shortage of Reapers, which makes it impossible to have a Reaper's Game. The problem with that is technically, you recruit Reapers THROUGH the Reaper's Game, so it's strange that you haven't had one. All Kanon mentioned was that she came in at an inconvenient time when there wasn't a game and went through a mini 'game' to become a Reaper."

Joshua nodded, appearing aware of the problem. He already seemed to know where Penerope was going with this, but he didn't intend to object to answering the question that she was about to pose.

"What's the _actual_ reason why you haven't had a Reaper's Game? My friend Akira mentioned that he thinks it's actually a problem from an outside force, and given the reasoning I've heard of, I can't help but agree with him."

The Composer appeared to be amused. "Despite some obliviousness that you have to a certain degree of what's going on, you do have a certain sharpness (though you technically got that answer from a friend). I suppose I'm impressed."

"So there IS a different reason."

"Right. So, you know how we're in a 'game', then?"

"…Yes, because you trapped me in here without my permission."

"As I'm pretty sure you're already aware, as we are in a 'game', and there isn't much of a postgame other than 'Another Day' and 'completing' the game. Technically, the Reaper's Game we had was the 'main campaign'. Of course, other games have happened in the past, but as the main campaign is over, we can't have another game. We're stuck in limbo."

Penerope had to restrain a triumphant smirk. " _I KNEW it. That's what's actually wrong!_ " However, upon thinking such, and thinking about what the Composer was saying, a frown appeared on Penerope's face.

 _If the UG was in limbo, what did this have to do with her?_

 _Why was she still here?_

 _What?_

"…Alright then. Thanks for answering my questions, I guess."

The Composer acted as if he was pleasantly surprised from Penerope's sudden shift. "Oh? Is something the matter, Penelope dear? You look confused by something. Did you have anything else that you need to ask me?"

Penerope nodded, pondering on the situation. "I have one last request for now."

"What might that be?"

The girl quickly answered. "Will you stop keeping my DS hostage now? I'd appreciate it if Rin knew what was going on now." Joshua appeared to pause again, and Penerope waited.

There was a long pause. "…Done."

Penerope turned around and started to leave. "Thank you."

Without much of a word else, she left.

 _She needed to figure out how to get out of this prison._


	7. Chapter 6: Cuniculus Cantus

Chapter 6: Cuniculus Cantus

(Day 6)

Penerope was impressed how she had been stuck in this place for nearly a week, yet she had barely done anything, fought anything, and had little things to do. Sure, she went shopping here and there (and dragged Sho with her), but the lack of activity truly was boring.

It was strange especially noting that she was literally trapped in a video game world. She thought that she wouldn't be bored in a place like it, yet this was happening.

What had amazed her the most was that Penerope hadn't even come up with some kind of PLAN to escape the game. She had been stuck there, worrying about everything else in the past few days. She wondered what would happen if things were different in this situation—like she wanted to get payback for a petty reason over a more serious matter*.

Did she even have a noise form? She probably had enough power to use hers if she had one. Not that she knew, as she hadn't tried to find out.

She had this feeling, that in a situation where she may have acted petty despite a more serious matter, she probably would've used her noise form earlier and adapted to this situation a little faster. This had felt like a long week where she hadn't done much at all, and she just wanted it to end.

Penerope decided that she wanted to go to Pork City again and formulate a plan of what she wanted to do now. She needed to think, and she needed to get out of this god-forsaken place ASAP. She dragged Sho with her up into the Lapin Angelique level and Penerope frowned, fixated on one of the doors. Pondering on what to do, Penerope looked back at the Conductor.

"Do you know which rooms are empty and which ones are not? I mean, I think this building was an apartment complex, but I also don't know if it is because I can't remember."

"Well, if you want to know, try opening the door. You'd probably figure it out by then." Sho replied, not really answering the question that Penerope had posed to him. Penerope looked unamusedly at her partner, and then stared at a door in front of her. She was hesitant to try opening it.

"…If I open the door, wouldn't that be breaking into someone's apartment-"

"You either open it or you don't. Either way, you're being zetta slow, and I kind of want to get a move on."

" _Thank you, Conductor Minamimoto. You are a truly helpful creature, aren't you?_ " Penerope sarcastically asked in her head. She opened up the door and found that the room she went in was empty. It seemed like a good place to ponder and to plan, which was exactly what Penerope intended to do at a time like this. Sho silently followed her in and closed the door behind them.

From there, Penerope turned to Sho and spoke, hoping they could collaborate on something, anything. She decided to finally better explain herself to her partner in hopes he'd understand… or didn't. Penerope honestly didn't want to be in this place for much longer. "Listen, Sho, I need to get out of here. I can't take being trapped in this… this _HELL_ any longer!"

Sho stared at Penerope, appearing to be puzzled. He seemed to be aware that Penerope wasn't from around this place. "Heh…It took you long enough to figure something out. Now, what are you going to do about it?" He asked her, crossing his arms. Penerope went deep into thought.

Joshua was the one who brought her into this world through her DS. He had been planning to do so ever since Officer Shiro completed what she could of her TWEWY copy, and when she tried to play it again to complete it, she was sucked directly into the world of the game. However, the world and the Game were currently in limbo. There was no progress being made whatsoever.

She had to escape TWEWY's Shibuya. Going through Joshua was the only way that Penerope could get out. She remembered that in Neku's case, going through Kitaniji and defeating him, but also the final gun duel with Joshua was the way he escaped. In ways, there was a sort of irony to it, when she considered parallels to Neku's previous situation and now her own. Similarly to him, she was brought into a situation by Joshua she didn't expect to go into. She had to make her own way out, however.

Penerope looked to Sho with determined eyes. "Joshua was the one who pulled me into this game world. I HAVE to get out of here. As he's the one who pulled me in, naturally, I'll have to get out through him. That means it's likely I'll get into a nasty fight, and maybe die in the process, but it's the risk I must take if I ever hope to go home."

" _Pen, are you sure that's a good idea…?_ " she heard Makoto ask. " _He's basically a god. You don't go picking fights with gods unless you're crazy or its God of War._ "

Penerope rubbed her face. "Oh $%&# me. Why can't they just text me…?" She grumbled to herself. Sho didn't pick up on what she was saying, though he supposed his forced partner was talking to herself. He didn't seem very afraid of her statement at all.

"So we'll need to fight him, huh?" Sho asked, putting a hand on his hip. He would've crossed his arms, but he was still temporarily crippled in his left arm, so he couldn't do so. Penerope nodded at Sho, putting her hands on her hips.

"Yes. I _have_ to go through him. If I don't go through him, I'll never get to go home."

A grin appeared on the Conductor's face. "Well! Please excuse my dear aunt sally! I didn't think you had it in you to face the Composer head on." Sho replied. Penerope was surprised how Sho wasn't thinking she was too crazy for wanting to go head on into this. She frowned and put her head into her right hand in thought as she supported her right arm with her left hand.

"The only problem is that I have no idea how I'll fight him. I remember struggling a lot with your boss fight ("My what? What are you talking about?" Sho asked). Noise forms tend to be quite powerful, but I don't know if I have the strength or imagination to pull it off, even if I am supposed to be powerful."

Sho didn't say anything specifically on what she was supposed to do, but she knew it hinted on her wings. She recalled all of the boss fights from TWEWY with the Game Masters, and eventually, the Conductor. First, they revealed their wings, channeling their power. Truly powerful reapers had the power to control their wings, after all. Sho had six wings and they shattered, so Penerope was unsure if he still even had them.

If she could control her wings, perhaps she had a noise form. Penerope took a deep breath and focused on trying to conceal the abominations that had burst from her back. She tapped into a newfound power that flowed through her veins. M'sieur Lapin came to life without being in battle as result, which took her off guard.

Penerope focused harder, and a purple aura glimmered on her back that made her wings finally conceal. It hurt at first, but it also felt really nice. She was quickly getting a hang of this, or so she hoped. Penerope took a deep breath, and made her wings appear again (which surprisingly didn't hurt this time), and slowly spread them. She tried to channel the power she had into her wings.

In that instance, there was a white flash, and Penerope was in a completely different form.

XxXxX

(Reality- Makoto's House)

Makoto didn't know how to feel about taking control of Penerope's DS again, but he also didn't know how to feel about the cutscene that had just played. It was like the opening cutscene before a Game Master battle—except Makoto watched his friend harness her wings.

And now she was a small, noise rabbit. Most of the other boss noise were… bigger? Maybe this wasn't even her final form? Makoto had no idea. Penerope had been playing with different powers and it led to this.

Looking at her sprite, Penerope was a tan rabbit with purple eyes, and her ears, legs and tail were violet and chainlike in the way most noise tended to look. Makoto watched her practice attacks while Sho was in the background. She used skull-like purple energy blasts, white and black chains that went across the screen, and could summon other rabbit noise. Her most prominent attack, however, was fire.

Penerope could use different fire attacks depending on her form. She could also channel her power in an even more focused state to become a rabbit noise similar to Tigris Cantus, with her wings more angel-like. This form, in both states, was called Cuniculus Cantus, or the Singing Rabbit.

Sho was surprised how many different abilities Penerope was able to utilize amongst her three forms that were similar yet so different. That would likely be useful with the battle against Joshua. Makoto had no idea how this was going to work, but also what the hell was going to happen in the fight coming up. He was terrified.

If Penerope died in the game, she'd be dead in real life. It was unlikely that she could be revived in the game as she wasn't from there to begin with. He didn't know how he was supposed to help her. Penerope was in control as she continued practicing.

While he kept an eye on Penerope, he was in a group chat with Mayu, Rin and Akira. He was mostly talking to Rin and Mayu in relation to what was going on with Penerope and giving them updates. Akira hadn't been responding much—though they were all used to this. Akira tended to be busy with life and his piano practice. They were trying to figure out what they were supposed to do for tomorrow. Though they had figured out day arrangements for most of the week, Penerope was pushing tomorrow as being her final day in the game. However, if this went on for longer, they had no idea what they'd do.

As they were discussing it in the group chat, Akira ended up coming in and responding.

"Hey guys, what's wrong? Why are you spamming me with texts?" He asked.

Mayu was on it with a quick response. "We're not trying to. We're just trying to figure something out." She answered, speaking in context to what they were doing.

There wasn't a response from Akira for a bit. He was probably reading through all of the texts. Makoto noticed something out of the corner of his eye, and then found Penerope had stopped training. In fact, she was in the cutscene/dialogue mode.

The boy panicked, unsure how he was going to shift between conversations like this. He dropped his phone and focused on the DS. Penerope was just talking to Sho about gearing up for the battle. Mainly in terms of clothing with getting good abilities and boosts from food, drink and anything else that would be helpful. She also suggested battling, and maybe figuring out pins.

"Most are restricted to specific psyches." Sho told Penerope, crossing his arms. "Unless you're like that one radian who could use many different psyches except for a select few, you're basically screwed."

Penerope's sprite appeared to clutch onto her 3DS's case. "I would be screwed if I didn't have my 3DS. I can harness different abilities depending on which game is hooked into my DS. Through it, I can access my pins and figure out pin sets." Her sprite then appeared like she was boldly puffing out her chest. "And as I tend to be that of a game completionist, I have all the pins that I could possibly have up to Week 3, Day 7." As Penerope was saying this, Makoto started hearing his phone's ringer go off, but he ignored it.

Sho looked like he was just staring at her. There were a few dots in the dialogue bubbles. Penerope looked as if she was the only one that moved out of nervousness. She decided to explain it a little better. "You _do_ realize I'm not from this world, right? It's a lot like mine, but less limited and weirdly less boring."

"You have been implying you're not from here a lot. It's annoying." Sho retorted. He got a good look at her again. "Now that I think about it, you look eeriely familiar from somewhere."

"Think of it as your world being abnormally conscious of mine, and this caused me to show up in the middle of Shibuya Crossing on Monday morning." Penerope tried to explain it. "I would break the 4th wall, but that was shattered a long time ago. Even my friends know that."

"You mean those fractals you've been talking to on your phone and the ones who have been angering Miss Red N' Black, right?"

Penerope looked as if she were nodding, but it was hard to tell from her sprite. "Yeah. Do you have any idea with what her deal is? She REALLY hates me for some reason and is more aware of how I don't belong here than most, other than the Composer. And why is she the Enforcer? Joshua sort of explained her purpose, but how did _she_ get into that role so fast?"

"Koizumi is that of an opportunist, but she's also incredibly determined and possesses a lot of imagination." Sho said, crossing his arms again. "All I can gather is that you're a part of her special job. Or Miss Red N' Black feels threatened by you."

"Why would she feel threatened by me? She's been a lot more aggressive than I have." Penerope said, her sprite appearing to shrug. Penerope appeared think back to something, but the thought bubble didn't show up. "…Maybe she knows something more about my power than I don't. Mainly with my phone. Joshua mentioned her instructions about my phone when I talked to him yesterday, but she's been amping it to an eleven. That might be a sign of something."

Makoto felt like he was doing a pretty good job at focusing on the game. He hadn't felt the need to look at his phone again. He had tuned out the ringer, and he was pleased about that.

He had forgotten why he was tuning out the ringer until it occurred to him that it had been going off like wildfire. Makoto wasn't all that good at double-tasking, but he could try. He continued trying to focus on what Penerope was talking about as he reached over and briefly looked at his phone.

There was a reason why his phone kept ringing. Akira kept calling him, likely out of frustration that he didn't answer a text. Makoto picked up as he kept reading. "Hello?"

" _Makoto, why the hell haven't you been picking up?!_ "

"Cause' I have to watch Penerope in the game and tell Rin and Mayu what's going on. She's been talking a lot."

" _Have you even been looking at my texts?!_ "

"No, I haven't. I'm not good at multitasking."

Makoto heard Akira huff. " _I'm handling the game tomorrow._ "

The boy stopped and focused on the call now. "YOU'RE DOING WHAT."

XxXxX

Penerope found herself having to stop talking when she heard Makoto talking and she was worried he was saying something important. She had inadvertently left her partner on a cliffhanger and was looking up, trying her best to listen. It seemed like he was talking to Akira by the sound of it. "Sorry Sho, do you mind if I use my phone? There's a problem."

He silently gave her the go ahead. Penerope sighed and went to texting her friends, having to ask what was wrong. She heard Makoto talk. " _Akira has lost it, that's what's wrong!_ "

"Would you stop yelling at me?! I swear, every time you do this, it makes me look like I've gone crazy!" She exclaimed, stamping her foot. Sho simply gave her a weird look.

"Who are you talking to?"

"See! For whatever reason, I'm the only one who can hear it when you yell around my DS! You have no idea how weird it seems to everyone else when it looks like I'm talking to myself!"

Sho looked around and caught onto something. "Someone is watching?"

Penerope sighed. "This is really hard to explain, ok?"

Sho went quiet, mumbling something to himself. All she heard was "the Spectator".

"…Are you upset with me, Sho?"

Sho crossed his arms. "That hectopascal of a Composer said something to me before this happened. He said something about a spectator arriving. It's likely you."

"Unfortunately so." Penerope spoke quickly. "However, we need to get going so we're set with good gear and work on upping stats. Fighting some taboo noise will help a lot." She headed out of the room, and Sho followed after her.

Penerope proceeded to pack the day full of grinding and stat buffs like her life depended on it. It did matter this time on how she'd handle herself, as these battles were a life or death situation for her. This was going to be the hardest, riskiest grind in her entire life.

But she had to do it, even if she didn't want to.

She couldn't die now.

XxXxX

As of recent times, the Composer rarely made visits to WildKat. He hadn't been willingly moving on his own as often, and mainly remained at the Room of Reckoning as of late. He was well aware of one thing, however.

Joshua knew that Penerope was preparing to leave. He also knew that she was preparing to fight them so that she _could_ leave. Penerope knew some of his abilities, but the Composer was less concerned about Conductor Minamimoto than he was of Officer Shiro.

Penerope had a lot of imagination. She also had a lot of power as result of it and her true ESP'R rank. The Composer was aware that she was powerful, but also that she didn't know how far it went. One thing she could do was become an activator for others. The Composer knew that Enforcer Koizumi had figured that detail out already. Tomorrow, she was more than likely to go after Sho and Penerope.

Joshua wasn't going to try and stop Kana. She was determined and unwilling to back down from something once she was set on it. He sighed as he went into WildKat.

It surprised him to see Neku there, talking to Mr. H. Joshua hadn't formally spoken to or had directly seen Neku since the end of the game.

Well… he sort of did. From a distance. He did want to meet up with Neku during the first time Neku and his friends had gotten together after the game but was unable to be with them or see them. He had to solemnly watch.

Mr. Hanekoma noticed that the Composer had come in and greeted him accordingly. "Hey boss, it's been a while. You haven't come around lately."

Neku looked up and acknowledged Joshua's existence. He simply stared as the Composer came and sat over by him. "I'm aware of such. It's been busy as of recent." He said as he sat. Joshua caught on to Neku's awkward stare. He addressed his former partner and proxy cheerfully. "Hello, Neku. How are you? It's been a while."

"Yeah, it has. I didn't expect to see you." Neku spoke, crossing his arms. "I guess I'm fine… but I also don't know. Something came up a few days ago. I think I saw that person you mentioned way back."

"The Spectator?" Joshua asked, sounding intrigued. Neku nodded, starting to want some answers to understanding this. "I'm guessing you mean Miss Shiro. She is the Spectator. However…"

"What? What's wrong?" Neku asked, confused by the pause.

"Penerope is soon to leave. Or soon to make an attempt. I'm not one to get scared easily, but I'm likely going to fight her soon. She is incredibly powerful."

Mr. Hanekoma was surprised to hear that from Joshua. "Powerful? I'm guessing you're referring to her rank, then. How many points does she have?" He asked, getting Neku and Joshua coffee.

Joshua responded almost immediately. "Angel. She probably has higher than that by now, but she ranks as an Angel." He said, almost appearing annoyed. "She asked me to prove to her to show her she wasn't in a dream and make her feel as much pain as possible so that it would wake her. The closest thing I could make her was a Reaper Officer as I have a Conductor and I can't simply make her an Angel."

Mr. H and Neku were taken off guard by this news. It was difficult to tell who was more shocked. Mr. H was the likely candidate, mainly as he understood the UG better and had no idea how someone could attain Angel ranking that easily. Then again, Penerope's world worked differently to their own.

"Angel rank? Have you guys mentioned it before?" Neku asked Mr. H and the Composer. He _did_ recognize that term, but only in use of pins. Mr. H, who understood it best, decided to go into talking about the rankings beyond the UG.

At least, he started to. Until the door of WildKat slammed open, revealing the Reaper Enforcer. Kanon completely interrupted the conversation as she stormed over to Joshua, overpowering Mr. H. "Composer, sir. Officer Shiro and Conductor Minamimoto have been gaining power at a considerable rate today. What will we do?"

Neku paused and stared at Joshua. "Wait. You made Piface the Conductor?"

"Yes. It's a long story I won't go into." Joshua spoke dismissively, putting his focus on Kanon and the situation at hand. "Still, I don't think there's much I can do to interfere with them."

Kanon didn't understand, putting her hands on her hips. "What?! You're the Composer! Why can't you do anything? That makes no sense."

"It's not that I can't, but more of that it wouldn't be wise. There are spectators watching after all." Joshua explained, not being explicitly clear in what he meant as usual.

The Enforcer was bewildered, still not understanding what he was saying. "The hell does that mean? Are you talking about her outside contacts that she shouldn't be talking to?"

Joshua nodded, but he was purposely not making himself entirely clear. "They have as much influence on the game as she does. I already know she's going to face me in battle soon. I don't know how it will end, but I know she's going to attempt to leave."

Kanon's face flushed red in an upset. "She can't leave! We need her here, whether she likes it or not." She indicated, before turning away and heading towards the door. She didn't look at the Composer when making one last comment. "If I need to break her to ensure she stays put, then so be it."

The air in WildKat went still as Kanon opened up the door and slammed it behind her. It took a moment for Neku and Mr. H to process what in the hell just happened, though the room grew less quiet when Joshua sighed. "Miss Koizumi, why do you have to be such a pushy creature?" He grumbled under his breath, visibly frustrated with her. The Composer was trying his best to remain as calm as possible. Now really wasn't the time for additional stress.

Joshua didn't typically show or seem like he reacted to stress. He wasn't bothered by Penelope leaving the game at this time. She was needed, yes, but it was unlikely she'd stay put, which meant another avenue was required. What was irritating him was the fact Kanon wasn't understanding this.

The Composer sighed and looked away at the wall. He really needed some coffee or something right now to get his focus off Kana.

Neku was confused by Joshua's behavior. He decided to ask him about it and check if he was okay.

Joshua sighed and looked to him. "Neku, I didn't want to ask for your assistance, but I think I'm going to need it. I don't think I can fight her without a partner, after all."

Neku bit his lip. He already knew where this was going.

He just wondered what he was getting himself into now that he'd be involved.

XxXxX

After going through another long chain of Taboo Noise, Penerope took a shaky breath and had to stop to compose herself. She didn't know if she was overtraining for the battle she was soon to get into. She likely wasn't, noting she was soon to fight one of the main characters of the game, and the mastermind behind what went on in the plot.

She paused and took a few more breaths, before looking to her partner. "Do you think we're ready to take him on, Sho? I'm worried that I'm not prepared enough." She said, tugging on her hair. After they were done training, Penerope wanted to get the necessary gear and food and see what pin set she'd use.

Sho shrugged. "It depends on what you want. You're the one trying to leave, and it's not like we're trying to kill the Composer. We're just trying to move past him so you can get out." He pointed out, before crossing his arms and thinking about it. "I doubt he'll make it easy. He probably knows already that you're trying to get out. That seems to be your "game". I'm more concerned if he decides to have a partner to aid him in the battle."

Penerope paused when he said that. A bad feeling crept down her spine.

 _What if Joshua partnered with Neku for the battle?_

 _What would happen to her pin set if Neku was involved?_

This was going to be a rough run.


	8. Chapter 7: Breaking Out

Chapter 7: Breaking Out

It was finally Day 7. It felt like it had taken a while to get to this point, but at the same time, Penerope felt ready to leave. She finished up her preparations the day before. She had gotten stats from food, she had gear with different attributes (over her regular clothes), and her pins were ready. Penerope also made sure that Sho was ready for this and got him prepared.

Akira was the one who had Penerope's DS from what she understood. She was a little worried about him being in control. Makoto really didn't want him to be as he didn't play the game for all that long and likely had no idea what he was doing.

Though Penerope could trust Akira with a lot, she didn't exactly know if she could trust him doing well with limited knowledge. She wanted to be on her phone to give advice, but at the same time, Kanon was a clear threat.

Penerope knew that the Enforcer was likely out to get her today. In terms of the "Game", the Game Master was able to directly attack players on Day 7. Though there wasn't a game master, Penerope felt like her current experience for this week was much like the Reaper's Game.

Penerope was the player thrown into the game. Her entry ticket was her existence outside the game card itself. Her objective for the whole game was to get out and return home safely without being erased and dying. She wasn't from this world, after all.

It was hard to tell who the Game Master in this circumstance was. Penerope's partner throughout the week was Sho, so once the week was over, and she was still stuck, she didn't exactly know how she would handle further entrapment. In a way, the Composer himself and the Enforcer were the Game Masters. Joshua was more of an obstacle.

But Enforcer Koizumi was the primary threat.

Makoto, Rin and Mayu were there to act as resources for Akira and were ready to answer questions on the group chat. Makoto had strongly suggested that Akira reviewed the tutorial (if he could, as it was highly likely the function was there somewhere) so he knew how to handle combat and help protect Penerope.

Akira typically picked up on skills and concepts quickly. This was the same for games. Though he didn't typically like playing video games, it didn't take him long to figure out how they worked and how to effectively play them. He was fine with party games and whatnot, but he preferred other hobbies over playing video games like Makoto and Penerope.

Makoto still didn't exactly understand why Akira was willing to take up the responsibility of helping Penerope out of the game despite having limited knowledge. Despite he had tried to convince him out of it the day before, Akira was adamant on what he had set himself on doing, even if he wasn't particularly skilled at this game. Akira now had an impact on whether Penerope would live or die a gruesome, digital death.

Then again, it was also like this whole thing was coming full circle. Akira was the first one Penerope had contacted when this situation came onto her. Now, it was up to him to help her, along with her other friends who had been trying. All of them had been hurting by what had happened and wanted to try their best to help, though Akira seemed to be angrier if anything. His biggest question was why she was dragged into a game and forced to suffer.

As Akira didn't have much scheduled like he normally did, he decided to use the time while he had Penerope's DS and the game to focus on learning the mechanics and figuring out how to approach the situation. He remembered how to play the game somewhat combat-wise, and he sort of got a better idea of what to do by watching Makoto.

Instead of using her phone to text like she normally would have, Penerope mostly communicated with Akira through the cutscene mode. It irritated Sho that she was having a conversation with 'nobody' (though he knew that someone was watching and that was whom his partner was addressing), but he supposed he understood the point once he listened to context.

Penerope was mostly explaining how she worked in battle. She used her 3DS to switch between games, and she also had pins she could use to further defend herself along with M'sieur Lapin. She did mention that the effectiveness of her attacks tended to be unpredictable depending on what she was doing despite she felt like she had more potential. Penerope hadn't given herself enough time to learn about her combat powers like she had focused on escaping the predicament she was in.

Akira was taking notes of this. There was one thing that stuck out to him in particular.

"My pin set is usually my most consistent and effective way of attacking. They've been working for most of the week, but I have no idea if they'll work when I go up against the Composer. He might be partnered, which is the hunch I'm leaning on. I'm just worried about who he might be partnered with, especially considering Week 2 of the game and the plot."

Akira had to ask about what she meant. Penerope ended up having to give him a condensed version of the plot and week 2 to get the point across that Neku would likely be the Composer's partner as he was his previous proxy and his partner in Week 2.

Then, he had to further clarify about why Penerope was concerned about the pin thing. She explained it simply.

"I am still in a game, Akira. It's just… I don't know how the game will react with the pin set. It is from the copy you gave me. It may stay with me and Neku will use the one I ended off with, or the game will have to decide whether it goes to me or to him. Though I don't know what I'm up against, I'm getting worried that I will have to face off against Neku and Joshua."

That was a reasonable concern. At this point, anything could happen. Akira just focused on making sure Penerope would safely make it to where she needed to go, which was in the direction of the Shibuya River. He didn't have as much control over Penerope's movement as Penerope herself did, mainly due to how he was focusing between two things.

Mayu was insistent on warning Akira about Enforcer Koizumi. She had sent bad feelings across the friend group, but that one character was the one they were most concerned about, ESPECIALLY with Akira handling the game. They had no idea what to do if Penerope was going to get in a fight with Kana or not.

Mayu was also insistent on elaborating that Kanon _really_ didn't want Penerope using her phone. Today was likely going to be a bad time for the girl if she dared sent a text. Akira was unsure of how speaking to Penerope directly through the DS microphone would affect the phone clause. So far, it didn't seem to be doing anything.

Penerope and Sho got to the entrance of the Shibuya River like they were supposed to. They were about to go in, only for someone to stop them. Their figure was hidden by shadow until they started walking out from the entrance.

It was Kanon. At this point, it couldn't be anyone other than Kanon.

Normally, Kanon seemed creepily upbeat. At least, that was how Penerope would describe it. Today, her demeanor seemed a lot different. She seemed more serious, and more _murderous_. The cold look in her deep blue eyes could kill.

"So, you're seriously going to do it. You're going to go up against the Composer and try leaving." Kana spoke, her tone low and venomous.

"I have to do it. If I'm going to get home, I must go through the person who dragged me here in the first place. The Composer is the gateway." Penerope answered. "I don't have a choice for my methods of leaving."

Kanon crossed her arms. She wasn't looking at Penerope, but she looked as if she were glaring at someone before glancing back. "I'm not going to let you leave. You're breaking the rules."

At this point, Penerope was done with Kanon. She was done with her trying to control her actions when it was out of her place. She was done with the girl intimidating her and weirding out her friends. She was done being left in the dark.

Losing her temper, Penerope proceeded to lash out at Kana. "What #&*%#& rules am I #&*%#& breaking Kanon?! Out of everyone here, I know the least about what's going on! Neku isn't even involved in this shit, and yet, he somehow knows more than me! I don't know what's going on, nor do I barely know ANYTHING about the current 'game', or whatever this is!" She shouted, her face reddening up and her wings raising as if for intimidation.

A sly grin appeared on Kanon's face once she saw she had touched a nerve. "Ohhh? Did I get you upset?" She asked, mocking her.

Penerope's glare could probably burn a hole into Kanon's soul. Either that, or she could use her pyrokinetic psych to do so.

Sho could tell that Kanon was angering Penerope to take advantage of it and then proceed to exploit it and break her down. That was one of her key powers as the Enforcer. By doing so, she could distract Penerope from her anger.

Penerope wasn't as effective as she wanted to be with combat to begin with. It could be potentially deadly if she got distracted.

She then heard Akira speak. " _Focus, Pen. She's trying to stop you from getting back. I don't think she's going to let you get through without a fight. By the looks of it, she's getting you riled up to her advantage._ "

Penerope paused and took a breath when she heard that. She knew she had to focus. Now was not the time to get upset. "I'm done arguing. Whether you like it or not, I'm going through here to get to the Composer."

Kanon appeared to glare at something again. "Hmph. You aren't giving up aren't ya? Fine."

The area began to shift as they were about to engage in combat. Kanon said one last thing, which put Penerope on alarm. "There's a _spectator_ watching the show. Let's make it interesting for _him_ , shall we?"

It seemed Kanon knew about Akira already despite Penerope hadn't been talking to him through texts.

Kanon appeared in Penerope's battle space, while her shadow appeared in Sho's. It seemed Kana wanted to directly fight Penerope in specific. Penerope watched Kanon summon a scythe with a long handle that reminded her of the limbs of taboo noise, and a pure white blade.

Beat technically used a weapon for his psych in consideration of this, but Penerope didn't expect something like this. It was like Kana was trying to be an edgy grim reaper.

…Then again, Kana technically WAS a Harrier Reaper already. She wasn't doing herself any favors with her weapon choices.

Penerope had to halt her thoughts noting that remaining idle was risky. M'sieur Lapin hopped out of Penerope's arms and she went to controlling him first. She had to be careful with him and have a backup strategy. She was ready to change to her Cuniculus Cantus form when ready.

Kanon was incredibly fast and agile. It did not take her long to rush over to Penerope and attempt to land her first blow directly with her scythe. Penerope dodged out the way, and M'sieur Lapin headbutted Kanon. She whacked the rabbit off her, thinking it would render him immobile.

Penerope was used to the rabbit going down quickly. She wasn't very good at controlling him yet. As Kanon came at her, Penerope blasted violet fireballs from her hands to deter her. The girl didn't have her pin set active yet.

"For someone with so much imagination, I thought you'd be stronger." Kanon mocked. "You haven't unlocked your true power yet."

"You can't just unlock your true power in a week." Penerope retorted. She used her 3DS next. Her Kingdom Hearts game was still in it, so it became the Ultima Weapon like usual. Kanon stared at it and briefly stared at Penerope.

"You're just proving my point. That's not the only thing you can do. That's not the extent of your power, Officer Shiro." Kanon spoke, positioning her scythe.

For a boss, Kanon was awful chatty and just opened points to easily be struck. M'sieur Lapin got up quickly and ambushed Kanon from behind when she was talking. Kanon twirled around and tried to whack M'sieur Lapin, only to be struck from behind by Penerope with her Ultima Weapon.

Kanon was taking a beating, as was her shadow. It was draining her health quite fast. She dashed back and charged up her scythe with a red aura. Penerope couldn't determine if it was a ranged attack or a stronger melee attack. Regardless, she was on her guard.

It seemed like a strong melee attack when Kana came at her and finally hit with her scythe. Penerope took less damage as she was blocking, but Kana had inflicted an HP Drain effect on her to regain health. Akira decided to activate Penerope's pins around then for more defenses and so she could heal. The fact Penerope and Sho's shared health bar was quite high helped, as well as the higher defense and other buffs from their gear and other preparation. Penerope was still quite frail, so the HP Drain did hurt.

She decided to shift into her noise form. Penerope focused the power in her wings and changed into the smaller Cuniculus Cantus form to have an advantage in speed and agility due to her tinier size. She used a fiery rush to set a fiery wall on the ground to help deter Kana from her.

It sort of worked. It didn't stop Kana from trying to kill Penerope though, as she figured a way around it. She waved her scythe as if she was going to attack, but actually used it to send crescent shaped blasts to put out the flames. Penerope shifted into her larger Cuniculus Cantus form with wings and prepared an attack once the flames were out.

Penerope communicated to Akira as she couldn't tell how much health Kanon had left. She was strong, sure, but she wasn't as experienced as a reaper yet and her power wasn't as well honed. She looked like she was hurt (with Sho doing most of the damage from what Penerope could tell), but she also had her HP drain attack that she seemed prepared to use once more.

"Hey Akira, how much health does she have left?"

" _It looks like a quarter of her health bar._ " He replied.

Penerope avoided a few strikes from Kana's scythe and communicated with Sho in the other space. "Hey Sho, I know that you're handling this just fine, but we need to finish this battle. Is it too much to ask activating Leo Cantus?"

Sho didn't answer her. Penerope had no idea if he heard her or not. She shot three blasts of fire from her hands to fend off Kana. "…Sho, are you there?"

" _I would try, but I can't._ "

"Why! You're literally the Conductor!"

" _I don't like obeying my probation, but if I break it, I'll be erased._ "

When "erasure" was mentioned, Penerope got slightly off topic. "…Actually, didn't Konishi get erased? How was she brought back? She was technically deleted out of existence."

" _Do you think I know that? You'd have to ask the Composer._ "

Penerope shrugged and decided to see if she could take Kanon down in the state she was in. She teleported behind Kanon and headbutted her from behind. She managed to knock Kanon down to the ground, which seemed to end the fight (which was strange, as normally, erasure would end it).

Kanon was slumped on the ground when Sho and Penerope both appeared in the same space outside the Shibuya River. Her breathing was shaky, and she struggled to stand up. Her face wasn't visible as she was looking down.

When she got up and regained her balance, she focused her gaze on Penerope. Penerope stiffened up when she saw Kana's angry expression. Her face was dark, and her deep blue eyes seemed to pierce through her soul. "You might have won this time, Shiro, but just know that _you won't get away with this next time_."

From there, Kana straight up vanished. Sho and Penerope had no idea where she went, but she wasn't erased as they didn't take her out. She also hadn't lurked back into the Shibuya River.

Now wasn't the time to focus on where she went. It seemed they could get through to the Shibuya River now and start heading to face Joshua.

From there, the Conductor and the Reaper Officer went through the darkness and into the next area.

XxXxX

(Shibuya River- Room of Reckoning)

Joshua had never felt particularly nervous about a battle or the direction it would go since becoming the Composer. This was the case even with Neku, as he never had to use his full power in a fight and only used fragments of it when it was necessary to protect his proxy. He only recalled getting worried if things were getting bad and his and Neku's health was getting low.

He noticed that he had been pacing a lot while waiting for Penerope and Sho. Sho was a pain to battle in the past, but Joshua wasn't concerned about his Conductor as much.

Penerope was the concerning one.

She barely knew about the extent her power went. She had tapped into some of it, such as with her noise form and some of her psychs.

What was bothering him was who was observing this time. He normally figured it out by who was texting Penerope the most.

Joshua didn't particularly like reading Penerope's texts. He typically sent texts and wasn't able to spy on others through their phones. Penerope's phone was the only exception to this primarily due to her situation. He had only intended to get her number to text her but was able to read her phone instead.

He was worried that the one person who hadn't really been in control throughout the week happened to be playing today. Their name had been mentioned in the text, but all he remembered was that they were a pianist. Joshua hadn't checked the messages since around the day before. It was mentioned they might've been playing, and he'd know if he had texted.

However, there was complete silence with the texts.

"I haven't seen you this anxious, Joshua. You holding up okay?" Neku asked, crossing his arms. The Composer paused and looked at him, taking a breath.

"I'm fine, Neku. Just mildly concerned about fighting Penelope."

"Why did you need me to help you again?" Neku asked, still a little iffy on it. Joshua was the Composer. He should have been fine dealing with this issue by himself.

"Though I would likely be able to capably handle this by myself, this situation is different. I'm going to need a partner to properly combat Penerope. Though she's not aware of the extent of her abilities now, she might activate something that could quickly grow into a larger problem." He explained, before stopping.

Someone else was there now. Joshua looked in the direction of the entry, and saw Penerope and Sho walk in. Penerope clutched onto M'sieur Lapin, appearing quite tense. Her hair appeared to be slightly messier than it typically appeared, and she seemed hurt in general. Sho was fine, though he was still in a cast. He hadn't been showing it, but the hand that he used to have to avoid using was still a little hurt.

Penerope took a deep breath. She noticed Neku there (which didn't help with her feeling nervous). She focused her gaze onto Joshua and spoke cordially to him about her desire to leave. "Look, Composer, I don't want to fight you. I really don't. All I want is to get home, as that seems to be the point of my 'game'. If you don't get out of my way, I'll have to make you." She said, her voice calm yet laced with threat.

"You know I can't just let you leave." Joshua answered, waving his hand. "I'm on the same page with you about fighting. I'd rather not battle you for a variety of reasons, though if I have to act as a barrier, I have no choice."

"…So, we can't negotiate on this?"

"What do you think?" Joshua asked in response.

Penerope winced at this. This was going to be a rough ride, _especially_ as Neku was there. Penerope knew how Joshua's attacks worked in battle (even though he was vastly powerful, the game's combat would restrict him. It had to), and though Penerope had accounted for Neku as a factor, she had no idea what would happen with the pin set.

Would it go to Neku? Would he get one and she'd get one? Would she get the pin set and leave Neku defenseless?

She had no idea.

Penerope hadn't trained herself in combat enough throughout the week. If she was going to survive, having her pin set was _vital_. She had maxed out Joshua and Neku's fusions in-game and made sure to give them pretty good gear in advance for the post game (that she never got to), as she intended to use them for the secret boss. She couldn't equip it though from her understanding.

She didn't know if Neku and Joshua's gear would be based off her other game's data, like the pin set was. It likely would be as Penerope wasn't able to access a lot of the data here, and it was a major roadblock.

Penerope took another deep breath. " _This is the point of no return. I have to fight them. I have to survive through it until the fight can end._ "

She heard Akira speak. " _…Isn't that the main protagonist, and that one figure that was by the Hachiko Statue in Week 1, Day 1? That's all I seem to remember from this game._ "

Akira noticed Penerope's sprite in the cutscene mode appear to face palm when he asked that. It was a really stupid question to ask at a time like this, especially when Penerope was tense. He noticed her thoughts say, " _Out of all the things you had to ask, THAT was the most important thing. Why. Why would you ask me that? I thought you were smarter than this._ "

Akira sighed and decided to focus. Penerope went into a determined pose, like she was ready to engage.

Penerope noticed that before the battle started, Joshua wasn't looking at Penerope. He seemed to be looking up, as if he was trying to listen to something to figure something out. Nervously, he looked at his phone as if he was checking something, but it didn't give him any answers.

It was like he knew a presence was there. He just couldn't hear it.

From there, the final battle began. But it took a bit.

Akira tapped the screen to get Penerope's pins to activate. It didn't work right away though. Joshua hadn't started attacking Sho, as if he was waiting, and Neku hadn't attacked Penerope either.

This was a situation where Joshua wasn't in complete control of what was going on. This was something related to the game's programming.

It was deciding how to handle the pin set. Penerope wasn't supposed to be the player character like she was right now—Neku was. If Penerope wasn't fighting against Neku, the matter of the pins wouldn't be an issue. They'd go to her.

Penerope held her breath, tapping her foot nervously. If her plan was going to work, and if she was going to be able to properly HEAL herself, she needed the Healing Whale pin in her set. She had alternatives for what to do if it didn't work, but she was fixated on needing it.

So naturally, what did the game do?

Well, Neku was supposed to be able to use a ton of different psychs based on his pins. That was the point of his game mechanic. So, the pin set went to Neku.

Penerope felt all the confidence and any backup plans leave her mind and body.

"I'm really sorry about this." Neku spoke in advance before proceeding to attack with Blizzard Cool. Penerope dashed and avoided the pillar of ice coming up from under her, but her concentration was gone, and her mind was all over the place. Akira did attempt to try to control Penerope and Sho, but he noticed that any input he tried wasn't working. It seemed something was blocking his influence.

While Penerope was trying to figure out what to do, Akira was trying to get control back.

Neku used the Lightning Rook pin to send a stream of lightning at Penerope. Penerope's breathing was quick, and she made a x shape with her arms. A violet shield with a spectral black skull appeared around her, but she wasn't aware that she protected herself. She had no idea what she was doing.

Neku managed to shut down her shield with a shockwave pin Penerope had on hand. The shield went down though Penerope did take the knockback. She was shaking. Neku moved closer to use Blizzard Cool again.

Penerope wanted Neku to get away from her. She fired off a flurry of violet skull-shaped energy blasts at Neku. He dodged some of them, only to get hit by some. Compared to how Penerope was dealing with Neku, Sho was handling Joshua fairly well for the most part. He was having some issues avoiding Joshua swapping from summoning objects and bringing them down to hit Sho and switching to levitation and hitting Sho with his Jesus Beams. Those were harder for Sho to dodge as the attack pattern was different.

Penerope and Sho were both taking damage as result. Neku and Joshua, on the other hand, were building up fusion stars slowly. Akira saw this while he was trying to get the DS to work. He couldn't take the game out or turn the DS off. He also couldn't see if throwing Penerope's DS would do anything.

She'd be pissed if her DS was broken because of him.

He was shaking it a little and pressing buttons but was getting frustrated because he couldn't get the stupid thing to work. Plus, Penerope was getting hurt due to his current incapability to do anything right now.

Akira wasn't going to let Penerope die because of him. He had to get this to work or find some alternative.

Penerope was having some issues calming down, but she knew she had to do something to stop Neku, or at least slow him. He was going to be able to heal at some point in the battle if he was getting low on health, while she was not. She and Sho also needed to make sure that Neku and Joshua didn't get the light puck, as it would increase their damage. Penerope hadn't activated the light puck as much as she should've, when it was vital in this situation.

She took a deep breath when Neku was coming at her with a shockwave psych and dashed out of the way. Controlling her breathing, Penerope attempted to get back into focus. She used her black-white chain attack to constrict Neku into place. Neku had issues breaking free from the chains, as he hadn't dealt with an attack that stopped his mobility before. This gave Penerope room to quickly think and breathe. She had to stack damage up on Neku to help deal with Joshua.

She switched into her larger Cuniculus Cantus form to activate more abilities. It was a good time, because a problem Penerope was worried about came up to bite her. Neku got the light puck passed to him from Joshua, and he managed to break out of the chains and go to hit Penerope. Penerope had to stop the combo and get more in sync with Sho before things got too bad.

Especially because it HURT when Neku did hit her with increased power. Penerope summoned rabbit noise that jumped Neku. It did significant damage to him.

 _Except then he used the Healing Whale pin_.

Oh, and it got worse.

Because the game hated her, and it seemed to be in Neku and Joshua's advantage right now despite Penerope was trying really hard to shift things to her advantage, they got to the Lv. 3 fusion. It seemed that the pair was charging up their ultimate on purpose to land an extremely powerful blow onto Penerope and Sho.

Neku and Joshua got into their fusion poses, and Penerope saw her life flash before her eyes when the two spoke.

 _"Another world awaits."_

 _"And you're going."_

The area was spacelike, and then, the moon (or an asteroid, perhaps, as Penerope never really paid attention to what it happened to be) was dropped for this attack. Critical damage was done to Penerope and Sho. The both of them were NOT looking hot.

Penerope was blown back by the attack and was forced out of her noise form. She had fallen onto her knees, and her breathing was quick and shaky. Her hair was a mess, and she looked messed up in general.

" _I'm going to die_." The thought kept racing through Penerope's head. Her body was shaking in anticipation for her gruesome end.

But for some reason, Neku and Joshua had paused after their fusion attack. This was due to Joshua, as once they had done tons of damage, the thought that had been on Joshua's mind before the battle—no, before Penerope had headed in, even—had returned.

Who was in control?

Penerope heard Joshua, as did Neku. His voice came from the speakers of Penerope's DS like it was a battle line, though it wasn't. "I still don't know which one is in control. I don't know who the Spectator is right now."

"Was that the thing bothering you earlier, Josh?" Neku asked. His voice also came from the speakers as if it was a battle line.

Penerope and Sho knew. Penerope was still shocked from the attack and recovering. She was confused why the final blow hadn't been dealt yet, but everything felt so slow around her. She was too weak to speak.

Sho sort of knew, but he didn't know the name. And he sure as hell wasn't answering.

And then there was Akira.

He sat there and watched what had just happened to Penerope. He saw how much it hurt Penerope. He saw the state she was in.

Akira felt _something_ surge through his whole being. He didn't know what it was, but at the same time, he was angry. Something had snapped. He was **not** going to idly stand by and let Penerope go down. _He had to protect her_.

He tapped on the screen. He felt like power surged through his arm and through the stylus when he tapped it, and it felt natural.

From there, he gained some control over what happened. A roar echoed distantly from somewhere, causing Neku, Sho, and Joshua to look up. Penerope didn't hear it. She was still panicking and trying to defend herself from her inevitable death.

Joshua's concerns about Penerope came to hit him in the face when a black dragon flew down and wrapped around Sho in the space he was in. A white dragon did something similar for Penerope. The black dragon and white dragon both had glowing golden eyes that glared into their foes' souls.

Joshua sighed and brought a hand to his face. "It's the pianist. Out of all the ones whose power she had to activate, today, it HAD to be the pianist." He said in complete dismay.

The dragons' roars practically shook the screen. And Akira was able to control them to attack. Sho appreciated having some help, even though he had no idea where in the hell the dragons came from or why. Joshua didn't like that now he had to deal with his Conductor AND a very aggressive dragon summoned by the current spectator.

The dragon shielding Penerope didn't attack Neku yet. It loosened its protective grip around Penerope to gently nuzzle her head. It snapped her out of her shock from the attack that hit her, and she was more aware of what was happening. The notion also rejuvenated Penerope and Sho's shared health bar significantly.

Penerope was still trashed but was in better shape. She just didn't know how or why a dragon was there right now, and why it was protecting her.

The dragon in Penerope's space specialized in lightning, ice, and support. The dragon in Sho's space specialized in fire, poison, and speed. The pair of them used this to help Penerope and Sho accordingly and generally be a pain for Neku and Joshua.

The pair were fine with handling multiple targets. Just not two powerful reapers and a pair of very angry dragons that showed up.

Penerope was able to use the white dragon in her space to aid her with her attacks. It let her ride it, which helped with avoiding some attacks from Neku and leaving him partially prone from above. Joshua had to make use of being in the air and on ground depending on the direction the black dragon was attacking from (or flying into him from) and sidestepping to avoid Sho's attacks. This battle was making him do more work than he had planned.

However, Akira wasn't letting up with the attacks, nor was Penerope and Sho (who made as much use out of the perk they had now while they could use it). The combined forces did a LOT to Neku and Joshua. It was the advantage the pair needed.

Penerope and Sho landed the last hit necessary to stop Neku and Joshua. Plus, the white dragon had interrupted Neku from making further use of the Healing Whale pin (it usually hit him and stunned him before he could use it).

The battle ended, but like with Kanon, Neku and Joshua were not erased. A blinding white light like a door appeared by the Throne of Shibuya. It felt like a breeze blew out of it. It played with Penerope's hair, which looked as if it was dancing in the wind.

Penerope recognized this light. It was the one that brought her in here. This was the exit. She was finally at the exit, and she could finally get out. She stumbled a little at first, clutching onto M'sieur Lapin and her belongings. Still, she walked towards the light.

Nobody was stopping her from making it to her goal. She had earned it.

She walked through the light, and…

XxXxX

(Reality- Akira's House)

Akira heard the chapter end noise from Penerope's DS despite the screen was black. It flashed with a white light, and Akira covered his face.

Penerope appeared in a flash without her wings and had fallen over Akira's lap. Her hair was a mess, and she wasn't in the best shape she could have been. M'sieur Lapin and her things had fallen on the floor nearby her. Akira uncovered his eyes and felt so much relief that Penerope was there.

She quickly rose up and shifted her head to her DS. She grabbed it from Akira's hand and took out the game cartridge (which was weird, as Penerope normally turned the DS off first) while she could and turned off her DS. Her breathing was quick as she gripped the card.

The first thing the brunette said while she was back in her own reality was, "Akira, do you still have the case for The World Ends With You?"

"Y-yeah. I think I just gave you the game card—"

"Get it before something goes horribly wrong with this thing!" Penerope ordered in a frenzy. Akira nodded and moved, making Penerope get off him, and he quickly went to his closet to get it like Penerope asked.

The brunette quickly put the game in there after opening the case and closing it like she was trying to stop an unspeakable evil from escaping. She clenched the case shut, and then asked for two more things. "Do you have gauze and a magic marker?"

"That's weirdly specific."

"Akira, please! Do you, or do you not have it? If not, tape is fine, but—"

Akira stopped her and quickly got some white gauze, scissors, and a black magic marker from a nearby drawer, handing it to his friend. Penerope wrapped the case with the gauze and cut it with the scissors. Taking a breath, she wrote, "DO NOT OPEN" on the gauze.

A relieved breath escaped Penerope's lips. Akira patted her on the back, trying to be gentle. "Are you okay? I've never seen you so freaked out before in my entire life."

Penerope brushed some of her hair away from her face. "No. I almost died. And I am sure as hell not opening that ever again, cause I am NOT taking any chances here." She answered, running a hand through her hair. She noticed that the gear she had been using and some other things she had bought had fallen on the ground by her bag and M'sieur Lapin.

She looked to Akira. "Hey Akira, is it alright if I use your restroom to clean up as necessary? I don't want to seem intrusive on the privacy of your room, but…"

"You may. You had a rough time, and you need to care for yourself. I'll let Nishimura, my sister and the other servants know you're here, and I'll take you back to your house." He said calmly, getting up and going to a telecom by his bedroom door. Penerope nodded and thanked him. She got her clothes and headed into the restroom, closing the door and locking it to focus on cleaning up.

Akira informed those who were at his house at the time that he had Penerope over through the telecom. Afterwards, he texted his friends and texted one last thing.

"She's back safe."

With another sigh of relief, Akira put Penerope's black DS and the sealed game case in her game purse and decided to read a book while he waited for Penerope.


	9. Epilogue: Perhaps Again

Epilogue: Perhaps Again...

It had been a week since Penerope had escaped her game. She decided that for now, she wasn't going to play any video games. It was mainly out of paranoia that her other games were possibly self-aware and out to get her. She had put the sealed case on the top shelf of her closet and pushed it back. She also avoided from touching the copy of TWEWY that Akira had given her despite it was supposed to be fine.

She worked with some other activities on her period of abstinence from her video games. She practiced playing her violin (which she normally avoided from doing). The sound of the bow playing against the strings had never been so relaxing. She picked back up on her practicing quickly, which made her Grandmother happy.

She caught up on reading on her book list, which felt rewarding. She hadn't taken time to fully read novels in a while. She devoted time throughout the seven days to focus on a book. If she finished it, she'd start another. She had some ideas of what books to recommend to Mayu and Akira.

The best thing was being able to see her friends in the flesh again. They met up to have ramen and catch up the day after Penerope got home. Penerope felt the same relief they did about her safety and that she wasn't trapped within a game.

They did the same thing a week later. Penerope was more at ease than she was at the start of the week. She seemed calm, and at peace. While they sat at their usual table, Makoto asked a question. "So Pen, how does it feel to have been freed for a week?"

"I wonder if it's a dream, though I'm assured now that its real." Penerope answered, taking a sip of iced tea. "As long as I don't think about it, I don't have nightmares. I've gotten so much done at home with practicing and reading. I promised Gramma that I'd help her with dinner tonight too. I haven't done much cooking in a while."

Mayu smiled and clasped her hands together. "It's good you're tapping into your other skills again, Penerope! Maybe we could bake something together sometime. That'd be fun."

"If you two are baking, make sure to save some for me." Rin said, grinning.

Akira brought up the fact Penerope was practicing violin again. "I'm glad that you're practicing violin. You haven't done so in a while. Practicing all the time and not doing something fun gets dull even though it's important." Akira said, thinking about it. "Still, despite the situation with the game, I think I want to play it through all the way now. I don't know what version to get though."

Makoto made a suggestion. "Well, there's a tablet version and the DS version. The tablet one takes away the dual screen system the DS one has."

"I like controlling both of the screens." Akira spoke firmly. "Having one screen would just feel wrong." He crossed his arms and closed his eyes to reaffirm his point.

"I prefer controlling one screen, personally." Makoto said. "It's easier for me to deal with that way."

Mayu shrugged and smiled softly. "Well, I guess its up to preference," She pointed out, before glancing to Penerope. "Hopefully its not too soon to talk about the game."

"You're fine. What happened to me shouldn't stop you guy from talking about it. I was unfortunate enough to have an overly self-aware copy, and I'm just glad I'm not dead." Penerope said, trying to avoid the thought. "…The first step for me is to avoid looking at the moon. I'm kind of scared it could crash down and try to kill me."

"Don't worry, Pen. If the moon tries to kill ya, I'll break the moon!" Rin said, slamming her hand onto the table. Her friends protected their drinks.

Akira raised a brow when Rin brought up breaking the moon. "Wouldn't breaking the moon cause a lot of issues for the planet? Plus, it would be physically impossible to break it."

Rin glared at Akira and elbowed him in the shoulder rather roughly, indicating that he wasn't supposed to take it literally. He brushed off the pain, only to glare back at her. "You didn't have to elbow me Rin. Sheesh."

"Boy, imma fight you if you're gonna bring up facts like that. We're tryin' to chill, and Pen is still getting back into the swing of things." Rin spoke back, fiercely glaring.

"How about we DON'T fight?" Mayu asked politely.

A smile slowly appeared on Penerope's face, and she took another sip of their tea. Even though the bickering got annoying, she was glad to hear it. It helped things feel more normal, and she felt in place.

Upon thinking about things feeling normal, something abnormal happened with Penerope's back. She felt a searing pain go through it, causing her to shoot up. She tried to breathe and calm down, not getting what was wrong. Makoto was the first to catch onto Penerope's change of posture and her expression.

"…Pen? Are you okay?" He asked. Akira, Mayu and Rin looked over to their friend as soon as Makoto mentioned something amiss. Penerope took some more deep breaths, closing her eyes, and lastly rubbing her back. It hurt in the spots where her wings had emerged from.

"Y-yeah. Pain suddenly shot through my back for some reason. It's where my wings were."

Mayu's brow raised. "You had a phantom pain from where your reaper wings were?"

Penerope nodded, still rubbing her back. "It felt just like they were coming back and were there, but they're not." She answered, checking to make sure they weren't back. "It should be impossible for them to be there. I'm back here."

Akira kept his arms crossed, though he looked worried. "Do you think that you might have become a hybrid of a game character and a normal person? If you're feeling pain in your back despite you're here…"

Penerope's calm demeanor melted, and her eyes grew big like a deer in the headlights. How could she be normal after what happened? Did she really belong back here? Was she safe here? Panicked thoughts rushed through Penerope's mind, and she was close to freaking out.

Rin elbowed Akira again, acting rougher. "DUDE! Why the hell did you say that, Akira?!" She asked, raising her voice a little. Mayu made Rin calm down with an unimpressed stare before going to comfort Penerope. She spoke in a gentle and soothing tone. "You're fine, Penerope. You're here with us now. You're not a reaper anymore. You're normal." She said, trying to ease Penerope's fears away.

Penerope took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Right… I'm fine. I'm not going to vanish again. I sealed the copy. I won't touch it again. I'm perfectly safe here." She told herself.

The brunette stopped when she mentioned that she was safe. Was she really? She remembered Kanon's threat to her before she vanished. What did she mean by "next time"? It wasn't like she was necessarily real, and she couldn't just come back. Then again, the experience she had shouldn't have been real, but it was.

Still, Penerope Shiro knew she was in reality now. She sealed her copy of the game and was smart enough to not play it again. It would be impossible for Kanon to get payback.

Penerope breathed again, and calmed down, opening her eyes. She was safe. She had to be.

She wasn't going to let the game get to her again.

-o-o-o-o-

I know that compared to most of my stories, I was rather quiet on the Author's Note end. This was mainly due to me trying a different format for this as I noticed it was getting rather difficult for me to write Author's Notes as I was unsure what I could say. Plus, as I've been posting my writing more often to deviantART as of late, I'm used to having a notes section instead of mentioning it in-document. I'm unsure if I'll slightly change this when I get around to posting the rewrite of the sequel to this.

I also appreciate the feedback, which I will respond to here now that we're at the end.

Finalcool720: I'm glad you were enjoying the story and that you were looking forward to more. Thank you for the feedback!

Guest: Same here. Though I have Final Remix now, I played the DS version of TWEWY significantly more. I do want to get around to finishing the Another Day storyline at one point. I think I just need to practice more at Tin Pin in order to get better at it and complete the storyline.

The Kishin Sesshomaru-Kurai: I prefer this version of the story as well. Penerope (or Penelope in the previous incarnation) and Joshua in particular were interesting to write. For Penelope, as much as I liked her, certain aspects of her behavior bothered me. I think she did have some aspects of being slightly mary-sueish (though I cannot remember this as well in terms of her powers and what she did), though I do remember her getting way too comfortable with being trapped in a game. As for Joshua, though I like him, I've noticed that he can be rather hard to write. I sort of remember how I pulled writing him off, though I think referencing his dialogue and personality a bit more would have helped me in the past. I'm glad that you've liked the story thus far and I appreciate the feedback.

The last thing I'm going to mention for this note relates to the sequel and to One-way into Marioland. For One-way into Marioland, despite that I am discontinuing it, I will finish the final chapter I had started for it and try to get it posted at some point even though it's a part of the old series. I do have the sequel for this started (which is titled as One-way out of Shibuya: Live Remix), though I don't know when I will begin posting it. I think I might start when I'm at chapter 10 in the writing process, though I don't know yet.

Thanks for reading! Please let me know I can improve, though please refrain from flaming. Feedback helps me know what I am doing well and what I can work on to improve my writing.

I will see you all in the next installment of this series when I get around to posting it.

Ciao!


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